Demons, Part 1: Petals of Flame
by MissAsamiSato
Summary: A few years after Book 4, Korra and Asami travel to the Fire Nation hoping to maintain balance after an assassination attempt on Fire Lord Izumi. Korra will have to navigate new spiritual territory and Asami will have to stay on her toes as they each face their past, their future, and a group of terrorists.
1. The Calm Before the Storm

"Wait, are you kidding? You haven't seen them, Korra?" Asami asked me, obviously surprised.

I shrugged. "Nope. I mean, it was still filming when I left for the Fire Nation, and then I lost my memory, and then I had to stop the world from falling into 10,000 years of darkness. Then there was the whole Republic City integration fiasco before the airbenders started popping up. It was a really busy few months, and then I was at the South Pole..." her frown deepened and I cut that part of the run through short. Neither of us liked talking about it if we didn't have to. "I guess I just missed out on it."

I could see the gears in Asami's head turning as I talked. "Yeah, I guess so." Her frown slowly pulled up into that cute little grin of hers. "We're gonna have to fix that. Tonight."

* * *

As the mover ended and the film reel spun down, I saw Asami turn to me out of the corner of my eye. I sat with my chin still resting on my fist, still staring at the screen, as I tried to make sense of what I'd just seen. "Well," she pressed me, placing a hand on my knee, "what did you think?"

I thought about fibbing, but she'd have seen through it. She knew me too well by then. I put my had on hers as I turned to her. "I think that that made no sense. At all. But if Bolin asks, I thought it was awesome."

Asami's face cycled quickly through surprise, then confusion, then curiosity with just a hint of annoyance. "Really? I know it got kind of overdramatic with the drill thing, but don't you think 'no sense at all' is a little harsh?"

I managed to turn my scoff into a much milder snort. "Maybe a little bit, but seriously," I gestured with my free hand as I made my points, "ice to the earth's core? Eye beams? Reversing the polarity? Bringing Pabu-"

"Juji," she interjected.

"- Juji," I conceded, "back from the dead? I mean, it started off fine but it just kept getting weirder. Don't get me wrong, the acting was good, and the effects were fantastic, but I kind of lost interest in the story when it started getting so unbelievable."

She huffed and pulled her hand out from under mine and turned away from me, arms crossed, playing offended. "Well, I thought it was great. Plenty of action, a little bit silly, just the right amount of romance." She glanced back at me from her mock-angry pout, which turned into a smirk. "Kind of reminds me of you." She dropped the act and turned back to me. "And even if it didn't make sense, it was still fun!"

I returned her smirk and put my arm around her shoulders, scooting in closer to her on the couch. "A little nonsense can be nice sometimes. I mean, I am dating _you_." She elbowed me lightly in the ribs, but smiled, and I laughed back. "We'll have to watch it again sometime and I'll try not to take it so seriously. I guess I just had a hard time getting past the Unalaq thing."

Her smile disappeared and she turned to nuzzle into my shoulder. "Right. The mover character is just so melodramatic, I sort of forgot it was portraying someone who hurt you so bad. I didn't even think about it bringing up bad memories for you. Sorry."

I shrugged and gave her a little hug. "It's okay. It really wasn't too bad. I'm just glad I didn't try to watch it when..." I trailed off. There it was again. It's not like we hadn't talked about our three years apart plenty of times. We'd worked through everything just fine, and I knew she didn't blame me for it and she knew I still felt bad. But every time it came up, it just seemed to put us both in a worse mood. _Not tonight,_ _I thought_ _._ I moved my hand up to her head and massaged the spot where her neck met her hair. She hummed in approval. _Come on, subject change..._ "Hey, you wanna go get some ice cream? There's that new place that opened up on Roku Drive, I hear they're pretty good." _Yeah, that'll work._

"Isn't it a little cold out for ice cream? All the snow from last week just finished melting."

"Oh, yeah." _Right. She didn't grow up at the South Pole, 5C is chilly for her._

She nuzzled in a little harder and I pulled my fingers out of the black waves. "I kind of just want to stay here, like this, for a while." She wrapped her arms around my waist and gave me a little squeeze. "Did I tell you I've finally got a whole week off?"

She had, twice actually, but I wasn't going to stop her from telling me again. I knew she was excited about it. "Nope, just that you thought you might be able to pull it off. How'd you manage it?"

"This one was pretty light for once. I only had three meetings and one contract. I pushed them all to the week after, and the factory can run itself for a few days. It's been so long since I've gotten to really take a break."

"Yeah, since we took that vacation to the Spirit World. It's been, like..." I tallied in my head, "Wow, almost two years since then."

"Mhmm. I'm really looking forward to it. And you don't have much going on at the moment either, right?"

I nodded. "It's been pretty quiet lately. The elections in the Earth Kingdom have been running pretty smoothly. There hasn't been an insurgency since that one in Shung. I've got a diplomatic visit scheduled in April, and you never know when some lunatic's gonna try to kill me again, but things seem pretty calm." I felt her smile. I hadn't been attacked by a lunatic in years, and I knew it put her at ease to hear me joke about it. It showed her I wasn't still having issues with my past. Well, fewer, less severe issues, anyway.

"Great. That means there'll be plenty of time to go out and do things later this week. Right now, I just want us." She emphasized with another little squeeze.

I kissed the top of her head and smiled down at her. "You got it, Ms. Sato." I could almost hear her roll her eyes. I pulled her in tight as I shifted so we could both lay down on the couch. We chatted idly about the stars and buildings she could see out my window, the marks on my ceiling: the scorch mark in the corner from my first day there when a giant spider-rat surprised me, the scorch mark over the stove from the first time I tried to light it with firebending, the scorch mark in the middle of the room from when she casually tossed her electric glove and it landed on a spider-rat trap and got flung to the ceiling... there were a lot of scorch marks. She eventually started yawning between giggles, and the next thing I knew, she was asleep on my shoulder. I wasn't far behind her.


	2. A Date With Destiny

We got one day together. _One_. And not even a full one.

I slept in pretty late the next day, and by the time I was up, Asami'd already made me breakfast. I wolf-batted down a few eggs and pancakes and we headed for her estate. Sometimes I thought about just moving in there with her. I mean, Naga was already staying there since I couldn't find an apartment that could accommodate a polarbear-dog. I could have stayed at Air Temple Island, but I wanted to be closer to Asami, and as much as I love Meelo and Rohan, they're a lot easier to like when I'm not sharing living space with them.

I would have loved to move into Asami's mansion. But she hadn't asked me to. Even as close as we were, I wasn't just going to invite myself to _live_ with her. I knew she loved spending time with me, but it was always pretty limited with both of us being big-shots in the city. I didn't know, maybe she liked having time to herself and that's why she hadn't asked me.

As we approached the grounds, Naga came running up to the gate. She always tried to poke her head through to get at me before it was open, which made opening it quite a bit harder for Asami. She never complained though, just laughed.

"Hey, girl!" I rubbed Naga's muzzle as she stuck it through the gap in the bars. "Yeah, I missed you too!" With a click, the gate swung open toward me, and I backed up only to be tackled by a mass of white fur. I pushed at her chest as she licked under my chin."Easy, Naga, it's only been two days!" I quickly resigned myself to being the target of both Naga's slobber and Asami's giggles.

Eventually she let me up and I hopped on her back before giving Asami a hand up. Two laps around the house later, we stopped at the front door and Asami slid off. "I'll only be a minute," she promised as she darted inside to change. She didn't mind borrowing some of my clothes when she slept over, but they didn't fit her the greatest, and she never liked wearing them around town.

I ducked inside and grabbed the leather ball from the basket by the door. Naga's ears perked up and she dropped into a playful crouch as soon as she saw it. I whipped up enough of a whirlwind to keep it in the air and floated it out to the yard. There wasn't room for a full game of fetch in the city, at least not without risking breaking windows, so we settled for keep-away when we didn't have time to head for the countryside.

Fifteen minutes later, Asami reappeared, all spruced up and carrying a bag. I grinned at her over my shoulder. "Ready to get going?" Naga snatched the ball from my airbending while I was distracted.

She smirked. "Korra, please, I was born ready."

I ran over and gave Naga a good 30 second ear scratch before jogging after Asami toward her garage. "See ya tonight, girl! Be good!"

Asami already had the car out by the time I caught up, so I just jumped in over the side and we took off. "Already got somewhere in mind, Asami?" I'd promised her a whole-day date, just the two of us, anywhere she wanted.

She hit the gas a little harder as she rounded a corner. "I thought we could get in a yoga session at the gym before lunch. I've already got reservations." Of course she did.

Yoga wasn't really my thing, but Asami had been doing it three times a week since she was six. With it being somewhere between meditating and strength training, I picked up on it pretty quick. I preferred a good sparring match, but it sure kept her in shape, and doing it with her was a lot more fun than the couple of times I tried it on my own. Partially because poking her in the ribs or the back of the knee while she's trying to hold a stance is one of life's little pleasures.

"Okay, what's the plan after that?" She always had her whole day planned out, usually a week in advance. She had to most days in her line of work.

"Nothing, actually -"

"Well, that's a first."

She gave me a quick side-eye. "I figured I'd let you pick. We'll have four hours to kill before Mako's party tonight, it's the only other thing I've specifically got planned."

"Wait, that's tonight? I thought it wasn't until after Bolin and Opal's anniversary?"

"Korra, Bolin and Opal's anniversary was last Wednesday. We sent them that card, remember?"

"No...?" I noticed her cheeks turn just a little bit red. "Asami! You signed for me again, didn't you? You know I at least want to have my handwriting in there. They're totally gonna think I forgot!"

This time she turned all the way to face me. "Really? You _did_ forget."

"I did not! I totally remembered that their anniversary was... around now. You know I'm bad at remembering dates!"

"Oh, relax. They know it too, they're not going to hold it against you. And at least they got a card from us."

She had me there, but I was still a little annoyed. She could have at least mentioned it to me. I sighed as we pulled up to the gym. "Okay, you're right. Thanks for covering my butt."

She climbed out of the car and shook her stunning hair back into place. "Always. Just remember that I won't be able to save you if you miss _our_ anniversary," she smirked.

I laughed. "Like I even could. You run me through the plan for it every day the week before." She blushed again as we headed inside.

One two-hour-long yoga session later (which included Asami losing her focus and hitting the floor three times, still a new personal record for me), we were back in the car. "So, where's lunch? You said you had reservations..."

"Kwong's -"

"Right after yoga?" I interrupted. "We're gonna be all sweaty, and we're not even dressed for it. Do they even serve lunch?" Not to mention that it was where she and Mako had their first date. I was way past being jealous of Mako over her, and I trusted her, but that night was already going to be about Mako and I didn't want lunch to be about him too. This was supposed to be for us.

"We both know you can clean us up from a little sweat. And don't worry about the dress code." She grabbed the bag she'd carried out of her mansion from next to her seat and shook it a bit. "I picked out things for us before we left. We're all prepared. And yes, they serve lunch, and it's just as amazing as their dinner service. You'll love it."

"You picked my dress?"

"Yup! You said it was all up to me, so I took care of everything."

"It's not the one with the slit, is it?" It was one of her favorites, but I was pretty sure that was half because it embarrassed me.

"Don't worry, Korra. That one's on reserve for special occasions. It's the one with the halter." That was her other favorite, and actually one of mine too. I've never liked things over my shoulders, sleeves always seem too tight there, and she's always liked the view of my back. She says the muscles are 'pleasantly distracting'. "And which one for you?"

"A new one." I wasn't surprised. It was a new one half the time. "You'll get to see soon enough."

A quick trip to the restaurant's powder room had us both ready to dine. Her dress was a curve-hugging and bright red to compliment the blue of mine, with butterfly sleeves and a gold chain at her waist, studded with emeralds that matched her eyes. Her tailor really knew how to flatter her figure.

We chatted over an appetizer about the party that night, a celebration for Mako being promoted to Captain. I was happy for him, but I sort of wished his Party hadn't been that day. It would have been nice to start our week together off just the two of us. I shrugged it off though. Asami and I had the rest of the week, and a promotion for one of our best friends didn't come around too often.

Asami must have picked up on my feelings about the topic. To be fair, I've never been very good at subtlety. When our main course arrived, she changed the subject. "So, what's new with the Earth Kingdom elections? The last time you told me about them, Yai had just finished making their head official."

I paused for a second to go over what I knew. "Has it really been that long? Yai's been settled since right after the Winter Solstice. I mean, I know we haven't had much time together these past few months, but wow."

She looked a little dejected. "Yeah, the plans for the Republic City Internal Tram System project kept me pretty busy." She never liked to talk about business when our time together was short. No reason to fill up our limited non-business time with more business. She perked back up pretty quick though. "I'm finally satisfied with my designs though. We're planning on starting construction once Spring's fully here, as long as President Raiko approves the budget. But let's talk about that later, I want to hear about the elections. I've been trying really hard to avoid news about them." She reached a hand across the table. "I like hearing it from you."

I smiled and took her hand in mine, giving it a brief squeeze. "Let's see. Gaoling's first election last year ended in a three-way tie, I told you about that. Wu didn't have a contingency plan for that, so they were stuck for quite a while figuring out what to do. The state actually took charge of thesituation before Wu could come up with anything. They voted to have three of the candidates serve on a committee; they're the only state so far that elected multiple leaders. There was a little bit of a civil war threat on Kyoshi Island, you remember that right? I almost had to leave to calm things down back in February?" She nodded. "I guess the deal there was that half town wanted to elect Kyoshi and the other half kind of thought they should have, you know, an actual living person to represent them. Managed to settle it without any real violence." I smiled, then slumped a little. "They did elect a Kyoshi impersonator, though..."

I ran through another two states with her as we ate, then realized I'd been doing more talking than eating and had to really shovel it down before it got cold. The Earth Nation was really coming along, there were only a few states left that were still working on getting a full-fledged government in place. As we wrapped up, I smiled over at her. "So, I'm picking what's next, huh?" She nodded over her glass. "Ice cream."

I got a full eye-roll that time, with an accompanying smirk. "Hey, you said it was too cold last night, but it's way warmer today! Plus, I haven't had strawberry in weeks. And I _know_ you could go for some butter pecan."

I could see her sweet tooth doing its job. "Okay, fine."

I pumped my fist. "Yes! And that new place is just around the corner. Come on, let's go!" I grabbed her hand and practically dragged her out of her seat.

She didn't resist much, but pulled back to ask, "Don't you want to change first?"

My grin widened. "I don't want to wait that long, I've already waited since last night! Besides, we never wear fancy clothes out normal places. It'll be fun."

She called to the staff to put the bill on her tab as I towed her along. Five minutes later, we were sitting on the side of the street, hand in hand, sharing a bowl of our favorites mixed together, each in a 3,000 Yuan dress. I was giddy just from how silly it felt, and Asami was trying and failing not to blush.

Half way through our dessert, a car sped past right in front of us, way faster than usual. "Hey, watch it!" I punched a little air after it, but it's not like they were gonna stop. Asami shook her hair back into place after the wind of it passing.

Just before it got to the end of the block, the car came to a screeching stop, then reversed all the way back down the street to stop in front of us. The back door opened and a small woman in a business suit stepped out. I recognized her right away as one of President Raiko's assistants.

"Avatar Korra! I'm so glad I spotted you!"

I let go of Asami's hand and passed her the bowl as I stood up. "What's going on? Is everything okay?" I'm pretty sure President Raiko has never once sent for me when everything was okay.

"President Raiko told me to deliver this letter to you directly and that it's very urgent, but he wouldn't say what it was about." She grabbed an envelope off the seat of the car and handed it to me. Asami stood up and we exchanged a worried glance. I tore the envelope open and scanned the brief note. My face hardened.

"Tell President Raiko I'll be there as soon as I can." The assistant nodded and climbed back in the car, which immediately took a tight U-turn and sped off in the direction it came from. "Asami, we need to get back to my apartment, right now." I made a bee-line for the car and she was hot on my heels, dessert forgotten on the curb.

"What happened? Was there an uprising in one of the states?"

"I'll explain on the way. I don't want anyone else overhearing." I slid into the passenger seat and she revved the engine once before sending us rocketing toward the edge of town. Once she'd hit a decent speed, I took a deep breath. She was focused hard on the road, but I knew she'd be listening. "Someone tried to assassinate Fire Lord Izumi this morning."


	3. The Departure

"Why do you have to go?" Asami asked, trailing me into my apartment. I was already starting to undo my dress. "It sounds like things are already mostly under control. The Fire Nation's royal guard will be hunting down the assassins, and I'm sure Izumi has her own healers."

I stopped for a second to talk to her face to face. "It's not just that. Izumi's hurt pretty bad, but she doesn't want to throw her Nation into a panic, so she wants it kept quiet. The Fire Nation's people don't even know about the attempt yet. It's just Raiko, me, and you." I shrugged off my dress and slipped out of its accessories as I continued. "Nobody's going to know I'm even there outside of the royal guard. If everything goes smoothly, I'll just give the Fire Lord some support and be back in a couple of days."

"...and if things don't go smoothly?" She almost looked afraid to ask because she already kind of knew the answer.

I kept getting dressed in my normal clothes and eventually started packing my bag as we talked. "If Izumi doesn't pull through, I'll have to stay and keep things under control in the Fire Nation until the next Fire Lord can be crowned. I _need_ to be there as it happens, the world can't afford for me to wait until afterwards and lose time on traveling. The place could be in chaos by the time I got there if I did. The Earth Kingdom is almost on its feet again, if the Fire Nation fell like that too… it could ruin everything. Raiko can't send any of his people without running the risk of the Fire Nation citizens thinking the Republic was involved in the assassination if Izumi doesn't make it, and then we could end up with a war. I'm the only one who can help without feeding conspiracy theories."

She held a thinking pose the entire time I talked, her eyes closed. She stayed like that a few more seconds, then looked up. "Alright. I'm coming too."

I paused in my packing to turn to her. "Asami, you don't have to-"

"Yes, I do. I understand why you have to go, but you don't have to go alone. You've still got a reckless streak when you lose your temper, and I won't risk you doing something crazy when you're dealing with _assassins_. I'll be there to watch your back, plus we'll still get our week together this way."

I got a little annoyed. "You don't have to babysit me. Besides, you're too much of a big-shot in the city. People will notice you being gone. If you stay, you can cover for me, tell them I'm sick, or-"

"Or that we're on vacation together. It's been years, everyone will believe it. It's a better cover story than you having the flu." She came over and put her hand on my arm. "And I'm not doing it to babysit you, Korra. We both know you stay calmer and think more clearly when you've got backup you can trust."

She had me there. I tried to come up with another reason why she had to stay… and came up empty. "Okay. I guess I can't stop you."

She smirked at me. "You might be able to stop somebody else, but I've got girlfriend privileges."

That got me to crack a smile, if only for a second. "We need to get going. Raiko's letter said he'd fill me in on anything else he's learned before I leave, and the sooner we get to the Fire Nation, the better." I threw a few more things in my pack, then shouldered it and headed for the door. She already had the car running.

After stopping at Asami's place long enough for her to change and pack, and for me to arrange for her staff to look after Naga and give them our cover story, we headed straight for President Raiko's office. We got there just over an hour after his assistant had found us. I nodded to his secretary and barged in. He turned around, ready to shout about not being interrupted, but stopped when he saw it was me. He'd gotten used to that eventually.

He frowned when Asami followed me in, though. "Avatar Korra, what is your girlfriend doing here? I thought my message was very clear." I could practically feel Asami wrinkling her nose at his dismissal. I scowled too. She was his biggest contractor for development of the city and they'd spent years working hard together to improve it, and then as soon as she shows up when he doesn't expect her, he talks about her like she's not there and doesn't even use her name.

Asami stepped forward to speak for herself and I airbent his doors shut. "I know what's going on and I'm going with Korra. She needs my help."

"Absolutely not," Raiko continued speaking to me despite responding to Asami's statement. "I need to send you as a fail-safe, but two of you means twice as many chances for your presence to be exposed and arouse suspicion. If there's a panic in the Fire Nation because of your indiscretion, the Fire Lord will hold the United Republic responsible. I won't let you risk our political ties just so you can bring a friend, this isn't a field trip."

My temper flared at his treatment of Asami and his condescension. Asami made to give him an earful, but stopped when I put my hand on her shoulder. I stepped up to his desk. "This isn't for you to decide. Asami's a better diplomat than I've ever been, and there's more risk of problems for me alone than with her. You're still risking a lot less with me going than if you sent one of your political lackeys, then you'd have to worry about the Fire Nation thinking you were behind the attack! And you aren't _sending_ me anywhere, I'm _choosing_ to go for the sake of the Fire Nation and the world! Asami's coming with me. If you want her to stay here, you can go to the Fire Nation yourself. Otherwise, back off!" I found my fists clenched as I stared Raiko down. Asami came up beside me as I finished and gently wrapped her hand around mine. _Peace, Korra,_ I thought to myself. I tried to concentrate on my breathing to calm down. I didn't get much of a chance though.

Raiko's typical serious-business face grew even more sour. "Fine. But I don't appreciate your insubordination in such a difficult-"

My hands slammed onto his desk and his papers scattered across the room. "Insubordination?! I am not your subordinate! I'm the Avatar!" I stomped a little harder than strictly necessary as I turned to leave. "Let's go, Asami."

"...Very well." He stood up. "Before you go, you should know that the only wire I've received since I sent for you said that the Fire Lord's condition isn't improving." I stopped and looked over my shoulder as he spoke, but didn't turn around. "I take it that she's not responding to healing attempts. You'll have to get the rest of the details of the incident when you arrive. I've prepared a boat for you to-"

"We don't need it," I barked, making for the door again. "We'll take Asami's, it'll be faster." I burst his office doors open with a blast of air. "Tell the Fire Nation we'll be there by nightfall." A jet of flame from my fist found a couple of his papers that had landed near the door as I walked out. Turning the corner just outside, I caught Asami giving him one last glare before she followed and caught up to me. I knew she'd have something to say about my temper later, but right then, we both just wanted to get out of there.


	4. The Fire Lords

"I still wish we could have taken an airship," I grumbled.

"Me too," Asami nodded. "It would have been a lot faster. But we get some more time to chat this way." She smiled. We were already half an hour out of port in one of her sea-worthy speed boats. It would be at least another three hours before we got to the Fire Nation, and maybe four before we got to the capital. Maybe even longer if we were pretending to be sight-seeing on a vacation.

I returned her smile and sat back, staring up at the sky as she drove. I offered to, I was better at boats than cars. It helped that there wasn't much to run into or worry about braking for out on the ocean. But she'd insisted, saying I'd be doing the hard part once we got there.

"How offended do you think Mako's gonna be that we're missing his big party?" I asked, half joking. "Before we tell him it was to handle a world leader assassination attempt, I mean."

"On a scale of one to ten? Probably about seven. He'll get over it." She paused a minute before noting, "I've actually been seeing quite a bit more of him since his promotion. The higher up he gets, the more he works with President Raiko, especially since they got to know each other pretty well when... when he was Wu's bodyguard. I've seen him on my way in or out of Raiko's office probably about half the times I've been there the past month."

The conversation turning back to Raiko set my blood boiling again and I sat up, leaning on my knees. "You'd think that wind-bag would have started respecting me more after all the times I've saved his city, but he still treats me like a kid whenever he's not in immediate danger." I huffed and Asami gave me a sympathetic look.

"I know. There's always a hint of it in my meetings with him too, though he's usually pretty respectful when we're talking business." Something shifted in her expression as she switched gears. "You know, lighting that paperwork on fire may have been overdoing it a bit."

"Yeah, maybe. Sorry." She narrowed her eyes and cocked an eyebrow like she didn't really believe me. It wasn't a complete lie: I was sorry that I'd disappointed Asami. Wasn't sorry for any problems I'd caused Raiko though. I tried to look sincere, but I could tell she saw through it. She let it drop anyway and looked back out over the ocean. I grinned. "What do you think about earthbending one corner of his desk slightly higher than the others? Was that over the top too?"

She almost looked shocked as she turned back to me. "Korra, you didn't." My grin widened. "Spirits, Korra!" She started laughing. "Is that what that stomp was about?"

"How long do you think it'll take him to notice?"

"Only until the next time he sets his pen down." She shook her head a bit, clearly still amused. "What am I going to do with you, Avatar?"

I turned to lay down across the seat, dropping my head into her lap. "Kiss me?" I suggested mischievously. She rolled her eyes, but bent over anyway, if only briefly so as not to go off course. I laid there for a bit, looking up at the sky and watching her hair whip in the wind.

At length, she sighed. "You know, a political crisis trip to the Fire Nation isn't exactly how I imagined our next vacation together, or my week off."

"Hey, you signed up for dating the Avatar. It's a package deal with having random world events interrupt your life at the worst times. I mean, I really love being the Avatar, but that part can get pretty annoying sometimes. At least you got to choose, right?"

"Is it really a choice when one option is so much better than the other?" She leaned over and kissed me again, one hand playing in my hair while the other stayed firmly on the steering wheel. We rode in happy silence and I watched the sky drift by.

* * *

I must have dozed off in her lap at some point, because the next thing I knew she was nudging me awake. "We're almost there." I sat up and stretched, then looked around as the boat slowed to a stop. We were definitely in Fire Nation waters, and I could just make out the capital and it's port directly ahead of us, still a bit blurry from the distance. "We need to decide what our cover is."

"I thought we were just going to use the same one we used at home: we're finally on vacation again, just decided to visit the Fire Nation capital."

"That'd work at least to start with, but you said before that nobody was even going to know you were here. If the people know the Avatar is here, they'll want public appearances, plus if anything happens to Izumi, they could still suspect you even if they couldn't blame the Republic. I think it's better if we go in under cover, at least until we're in the palace."

She had some good points. "You're right. But..." I looked down at my outfit. "How? I'm going to stick out like a sore thumb in water tribe clothes."

"Korra, do you even realize who you're talking to?" Digging under the seat, she pulled out the bag she'd brought and opened it up. Along with some emergency rations, a few mechanical parts I didn't recognize, and her personal effects, there were three different distinctly Fire Nation outfits for each of us.

I blinked. "When did you...?"

"I've maintained a full wardrobe of each nation's themes for years. Makes it easier to fit in if I want to on business trips. I started having my tailor put some together for you last fall, I just hadn't gotten around to giving them to you yet."

I dug through the bag, trying to get an idea of what we had to work with. One set of casual clothes, one rather formal dress, and one set of robes that was obviously meant to invoke nobility for each of us, all in red and black. "The dresses won't work for a disguise, they'll just draw attention. The casual set is probably the best for laying low generally, but maybe not for the palace. The robes will probably let us get in there without many questions, but I don't know if they'll attract too much attention in more common parts of the city."

She pulled out her set of robes. "You're thinking too much. The commoner clothes might raise some eyebrows near the palace, but commoners aren't going to question someone who looks important. You know how to get to the palace from the docks, right? As long as we're confident and act like we're supposed to be here, no one's going to stop us."

She certainly seemed to be confident, and that was enough for me. She pulled her robes on, but I took the time to change out of my blue casual clothes into the red ones she'd brought for me. No reason to look too conspicuous if I had to ditch the robe. I shrugged it on over the top and smiled. Everything fit like a glove, even the robes over my shoulders. I tried to think of where she could have gotten my measurements for her tailor to make them this good, but honestly, I slept like a rock. It could have been a lot of nights. I pulled my hair up into a bun, then noticed she was braiding hers over her shoulder. "Here, I can do that while we drive. I don't want to be any later." I hadn't ever seen her hair braided before. I liked it.

Dressed to blend in and not look too obviously like ourselves, she put the boat in gear and we took off. A few minutes later, we were pulling in to the harbor and making our way through the city toward the palace. I had to nudge her in the right direction a few times, but she was right, as long as we kept moving with purpose nobody said anything. I got a few double-takes, people obviously thinking "she kind of looks like the Avatar" before I was out of sight, but nothing more.

We made it to the palace without incident, where the royal guards knew to be looking for me, and we were quickly swept inside. A guide met us immediately, offering to take us to Izumi. As we followed him, I tried to get as much information as I could.

"What happened exactly? I need to know everything you can tell me: where it happened, what the attackers looked like, how they attacked, anything."

"Firelord Izumi was just on her way across the courtyard for a meeting," the guide recited. He still sounded concerned, but also like this was maybe the fifth time he'd been through this today. "I was waiting for her at the strategy complex, I saw the whole thing. Without warning, she was attacked by three lightningbenders from the rooftops. One of the bolts hit the guard on her right. He was reaching out to protect her at the time, and the energy jumped from him to her. The guard on her left was also hit... he died instantly, and the shockwave threw her off her feet. She managed catch and redirect the third strike, but between the secondary jolt from the right guard and the shockwave from the left, she held the lightning through her entire fall."

I met Asami's eyes and she closed her mouth that had been hanging slightly open before voicing her thoughts. "And she lived? That's incredible."

"Yes," our guide agreed. "She's an incredible bender." He quickened his step. "But she's still human, and she's in bad shape. She's had muscle spasms almost constantly since the incident, and she hasn't spoken a complete thought since the command to keep the attack secret. Just a few scattered words. About an hour ago, she became comatose. Our healers have been working non-stop, but there have been minimal results, and we fear she'll only get worse while she remains unconscious." He stopped in front of a large pair of double doors and unlocked them with a key from his sleeve. "Please, go in. The healers may be able to tell you more of her condition."

"Thank you." Asami followed me in and the guide closed and locked the door behind us. We were in Izumi's private chambers, a moderately sized room (small for the palace). The Fire Lord lay sprawled on a table near the middle of the room, limbs twitching. Two waterbenders and two firebenders surrounded her, their elements in their hands, trying to help their leader. In a chair in the far corner, to the left of a large window, sat Lord Zuko, head in one hand, looking understandably distressed. He looked up at the click of the door closing and we made our way over to him. I bowed and Asami took my cue. Lord Zuko returned it without getting up.

"One of the attendants that saw it happen told us. Is she doing any better?"

A few thumps of another spasm and a pained grunt from behind us made him wince before answering. His shoulders were slumped even more than usual. He looked defeated. "Only a bit. Her convulsions are becoming milder and less frequent, but she's wasn't responding to anything before, and she still hasn't woken up. This is the fourth team of healers we've brought in, but so far none have been able to help without risking further, permanent damage. I'm afraid we may have to rely on her recovering on her own."

I nodded and looked back over my shoulder to where Izumi lay. "I want to help, but I don't know very much about lightning."

Zuko closed his eyes, deep in thought. "I've never been able to produce it myself, but my uncle once guided me through the process. By separating the positive and negative energy in your body, you create an imbalance. Then you allow the energy to recombine. The violence of the recombination creates lightning, which the bender guides out of their body. I believe that the lightning itself is predominantly negative energy that grew during its separation from the positive. I've heard that that is the component that is used in most electrical devices powered by lightning."

"That's right," Asami chimed in. "I'm not sure if much positive energy is generated, but all of the lightning energy that goes into my machines and that powers Republic City is negatively charged."

I thought about that a moment. "Hmm... negative energy growing when it's separated from positive. That's like what happened to Vaatu when he and Raava were split. Maybe she's not responding to healing because there's still too much negative energy inside her."

Zuko's brow furrowed. "The energy of a lightning strike usually dissipates relatively quickly once it's unleashed, but I suppose it could have become bound up in one of her chakras."

"I can try to sense where energy might be stuck in her spirit. If we can at least find out what the problem is, maybe we can find a way to fix it."

Nodding, Zuko got up and made his way over to the team of healers. They exchanged a few words, then the group slowly filed out. Zuko followed them, then stopped at the door. "I'll give you some peace to work. Please, let me know if you find out anything at all."

"I will." Once they were all out, I shrugged my robe off in favor of clothing I was more used to, then took a deep breath and stepped up next to Izumi's table. I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned to give Asami a worried look. "I've never really done anything like this before. The closest I've done was restoring people's bending and pulling Raava out of Unavaatu. Those were both so near the surface and easy to find. I've never dug around deep in another person's spiritual energy before."

She moved in for a hug that I returned. "You're gonna do great. You're the Avatar. You've got a pretty good track record, even on first attempts with spiritual stuff, and maybe Raava can help. I have total faith in you."

I smiled. "Thanks, Asami." She hugged me again, then retreated, taking a seat in the middle of the window that spanned the back wall. I turned my attention back to Izumi, steadied myself with another breath, closed my eyes, and tapped into the Avatar state.

My eyes glowed and I felt Raava's energy flow into my limbs, my mind. _It's good to feel you again,_ I thought to her. _It's been a while. Can you help me search Izumi's spirit for anything odd in her energy flow?_ I felt her light fill me, and as her mind meshed with mine, I suddenly knew what to do. I bent fire for my left hand, drew up water from the pail under the table for my right, and began feeling my way over Izumi's aura. I delved into her spiritual energy, slipping into a meditative state almost instantly.

* * *

I watched intently as Korra felt for what might be wrong with Izumi. She was bending the fire and water on her hands purposefully, but I don't think she realized she was bending the other elements too. A ring of small stones from the floor hovered around her knees and her clothing waved lightly in a breeze I couldn't feel. I stared at her back in awe.

Bending was always something I was fascinated by, even back before I met Korra when I was a big fan of pro bending, but she was something else. She was intimidating and kind and powerful and beautiful and amazing. I realized I was daydreaming and that my cheeks were hot, so I tried to focus on what she was doing.

She'd been waving her hands over Izumi's torso, but she suddenly stopped, just holding them in place over her stomach. After a moment, they started moving again, but in smaller circles, and light slowly grew in the area she was focusing on. I leaned over to the right to get a better look around Korra.

That was when the glass behind me exploded.


	5. The Hunter and the Hunted

There wasn't time to notice the flash of blue light before the window exploded behind me. I fell out of my chair and covered my head as shards of glass scattered everywhere. I looked up as Korra turned toward me, responding to the explosion, eyes still glowing and elements hovering. That was when the second flash of blue light came.

A bolt of lightning snaked into the room through the missing window and straight into Korra's shoulder. She cried out in pain, and I saw the electricity arc to Izumi as well through Korra's hand. It was all over in a fraction of a second, and then Korra collapsed.

I threw myself toward her, caught her before she hit the ground and held her close. I remember screaming her name, but I don't remember hearing myself scream it. I don't remember hearing anything. I felt like my heart had stopped. But hers hadn't. I couldn't see or feel anything else, but I could see Korra's chest rising and falling slowly, feel her heartbeat through her muscles. She wasn't dead. And she wasn't in the avatar state, fighting for her life either. I started breathing again. The shock must not have caused any life-threatening damage.

Three men leaped through the window that the first lightning strike had cleared. They were all dressed in black and red robes, a symbol of a red flower on their sleeves. The Red Lotus. Only feet away.

In the span of a blink, I set Korra down and lashed out at the nearest of them with a leg sweep. He hopped to avoid it, landing on the chair he was standing in front of. I quickly transitioned into a rising kick that came up on the chair's underside. He and the chair toppled right out of the fourth story window.

I turned my rising kick into a back-handspring and was on my feet before his buddies knew what had happened. I stood between them and Korra, at the ready, eyes flashing between them as they both dropped into combat poses. I couldn't engage one of them without opening myself to the other, but I didn't need to. If I could just keep them away from Korra a little longer, backup would arrive. There was no way Zuko and the palace staff hadn't heard the explosion of the window.

The one on my left struck first, a series of quick jabs that I avoided, deflected, and blocked easily enough, but that left little room for counterattack. I found myself being pushed backwards, away from Korra. This guy was fast.

I noticed over his shoulder that his partner was stretching back and forth, arms flowing widely. I'd seen Mako do the same. He was gathering lightning. I ducked a jab, kicked off of the wall I'd almost been pressed to, and slid under my opponent's legs and across the room. As my momentum came to an end, I stretched out and hooked my foot around the other man's ankle and pulled. As he lost his balance, the energy he'd built up released, straight up into the ceiling. It crumbled, rocks beginning to fall around the two of us. I dove for the other half of the room and made it to safety, only to be assaulted by the first guy again. But I was ready for him this time.

On his first jab, I grabbed his arm and twisted it over my shoulder as I turned around, flipping him over me with his own momentum. He started to try to recover mid-swing, and would have probably been able to turn the move against me when he hit the ground... but we weren't in an open area, and he didn't hit the ground. I flipped him straight into a wall, and he crumpled before slowly pushing himself up. While he was down, I dashed for the door, grabbing my bag that I'd left behind it and snatching my electric glove from the outside pocket. I turned around and was immediately slammed by the door as it opened. I stumbled into the wall, and Zuko started to ask what happened before launching a stream of fire. I watched as it shot across the room, toward the bender who'd made his way out of the rubble... and who had grabbed Korra over his shoulder while I was thrown off. He bent the fire to the side with one hand, then leaped back out the window, closely followed by his partner.

I dashed to the window after them and found them just sliding to the end of the rope they'd used to get to the window in the first place. I grabbed it and started sliding down after them. I only made it down half a story before the firebender turned around long enough to shoot a jet of flame up at me. I narrowly avoided it, but the rope I was hanging from wasn't so lucky. I plummeted the remaining three stories, carefully timing a jump off the wall and rolling as I hit the ground to soften my landing.

I was met with a bolt of lightning. The bender on a nearby roof didn't have the best aim on a moving target, but they were accurate enough. The ground exploded beneath my feet at the end of my roll, and I was launched backwards into the wall. I struggled to push myself up, only to see the men I'd fought with scaling a rope ladder to join their comrades and all of them disappearing over the rooftop with Korra. I slammed my gloved fist into the ground as tears started flowing.

I heard Lord Zuko telling the royal staff about the Avatar's capture. I pushed myself to my feet and wiped the tears away. _No time for that now._ I called back up to the room I'd fallen from. "They hit her with lightning! Izumi got hit by it too, she's going to need help!" Zuko leaned out the window and nodded down at me. The others in the room had heard me. "I'm going after Korra, send anyone you can to search too. We have to find her _now,_ those people were from the same group that poisoned her five years ago!"

Zuko's expression went from resolved and worried to frightened and desperate. I was sure mine was similar. "There will be two teams here for Izumi any minute. As soon as they arrive, I'll organize a search party of every guard we have available. We'll find her."

I nodded solemnly and glanced over to where the assailant I'd knocked out of the window. "If this guy's still breathing, you can try to interrogate him too. Toss me my bag, I'll need it!" Zuko disappeared briefly and then the bag dropped down to me. I caught it, threw it over my shoulders, and immediately took off running in the direction Korra's kidnappers had fled. There was no time to lose.

I tried to calm myself down, tried to think logically so that my head would be clear. I knew it would give me a better chance of finding her, even if the adrenaline helped me move faster. _They won't do anything serious to her until they can chain her up_ , I tried to tell myself, even though my stomach almost turned at the thought. _They want her in the Avatar state when they kill her, and they know how powerful she is then. They'll try to find some way to control her, and they won't hurt her until then._ It didn't help. I still had to find whatever hideout they were going to use for that before they got there, and with a time limit on the life of the person you love, it's hard to be calm.

It had already been fifteen minutes. There was basically no tracking to be done, we were in a high-class city. Everything was stone and brick, they didn't leave a trace and almost no one was out past sundown to even ask if they'd seen her. I ran almost aimlessly, scanning every alley I passed, just hoping to get lucky.

I made it to the end of another block and stopped to catch my breath. _Okay, Sato. Think. They've got to keep her contained somehow, even in the Avatar state. They'll need a lot of platinum for that._ I looked around over the royal city. _Probably not a ton of platinum here. They've got to be taking her somewhere else! Maybe down to the industrial district?_ I looked off to the east, down toward the harbor and the bay, where the more typical parts of the island were. _They won't want a lot of people, though. They can't risk someone seeing her or stumbling into what they're doing._ _This island is too heavily populated, they'll probably be taking her to a more remote one. But for that, they'd need a boat... or an airship._

I sprinted across the grid of the city, laterally instead of radially out from the palace like I was before. I needed to find one of the guards. I only had to go a few streets over. "Radio the palace and the airship field. Tell them not to let any ships take off. Lock down the harbor too and send the search party to the shores. I'm sure they're going to try to take her off the island!"

He pulled out his portable radio and started switching frequencies to relay my message to the relevant parties. I dashed off, back toward the palace. The airship field was on the other side of it, down the mountainside away from the harbor. Minutes later, as I crested the lip of the crater that housed the royal city, I looked down at the airfield. Dozens of airships sat anchored to the mountainside. It was a brilliant design really, using the slope to ensure a clean takeoff for every ship. Red lights flashed all across the area, clearly in lockdown like I'd asked. Everything seemed calm and under control.

I started to turn back, to head for the shipyard to check there too. But out of the corner of my eye, I saw a light flick on in one of the airships in the row nearest to me. My heart dropped into my stomach, and the ship's propellers started to spin. My mind froze. I couldn't even think, but my body knew what to do. I broke into a sprint again, straight down the slope toward the ship.

I nearly tripped on my robes twice, but managed to keep my footing. Just as I got close, the propellers shifted into full gear and the ship started to slide forward off of its launch deck and into the air. I pushed harder than I knew I could and leapt as I approached its tail. I caught the cross-fin and pulled myself up onto it as the ship started to gain some real altitude.

I knew there was going to be too much wind, especially in a turn, for me to stay here without some way to secure myself. Plus, they'd have a higher chance of discovering me. I needed the element of surprise or I was never going to pull this off on my own. I didn't have a chance to alert anyone about the airship, I just had to hope someone else noticed it, made the connection, and was able to follow it. If they didn't, it was up to me, and I had to assume I was alone until backup actually arrived.

I jumped up and grabbed the top of the rudder, then put my feet against its side. _Don't look down_. Not that not looking down helped much. I was acutely aware of how far the drop would be if my hands gave out. Muscles aching but my grip never tighter, I walked myself along the rudder's curve down to the body of the ship. I could stay here during the ride, the winds wouldn't be as high on the back side of the crown of the ship, and I could use the rudder as a shield from the turning winds if I moved to the inside of the turn. I just hoped they weren't going to take the ship too high, I didn't have any way to deal with thin air and wasn't prepared for extreme cold. The wind was already going to chill me enough.

I sat down with my back to the rudder and thought back to my two near-trips when trying to catch the airship. If I'd gone down on either of them, there was almost no way I'd have made it to the ship in time. Then I wouldn't be here to try to stop these monsters. Or would I? I might have been able to get another airship launched before they were out of sight, and then I'd have more people with me and we could track them. Would that have been better? Would they have abandoned their plan if they knew a whole airship was following them? No... they probably would have just shot our ship down with lightning. It was better that I was here alone. I still had to hope that the Fire Nation would be able to follow. That was a better hope for saving Korra than just me against who knew how many Red Lotus members, especially with lightningbenders involved.

I shook my head to clear it. Questioning what led me here wasn't going to help anything. I needed to figure out what I could do right now, now that I was in this situation. I pulled my bag around onto my lap. Opening it up, I dug inside for the mechanical parts I'd brought along. I'd originally packed most of them with the intention of working on a new prototype for a brake system for the Satomobile that wouldn't lock the wheels and cause the tires to skid, plus a few odds and ends in case the messes Korra usually got in required me to improvise. I would have smiled to myself if I wasn't so worried and scared. This was one hell of a mess. I gathered all of the parts to the top of the bag and started brainstorming. Whatever I could build here might be the only help I got for saving Korra.


	6. The Escape

I couldn't seem to concentrate on the mechanics I'd brought. I kept thinking about Korra, about what they were going to do to her. I realized fairly quickly that I shouldn't be sitting there trying to invent something anyway. I needed all the help I could get, but I couldn't afford to wait until we got where they were going. There were five people in the attack and only four made it to the ship, and based on how long it took them to actually get the ship in the air, they didn't have accomplices waiting for the getaway. There was no telling how many more of them there might be waiting for them to get back to their hideout. My best chance would be to try to bust her out while we were still en route.

I changed out of my robes and into the more athletic outfit I'd brought, one I was much less likely to trip over. I took one last look back toward the Fire Nation capitol, hoping an airship would be following us. If they were already on their way, I could afford to wait. But the sky was empty. I was on my own. Me against three lightningbenders and a rather skilled non-bender.

I set off along the top of the airship toward the escape hatch near the middle, but halfway there, a huge sound resonated from below. I could feel it vibrating the ship beneath my feet. I stopped for a moment, then suddenly the entire ship rocked to the side. I dropped to one knee, steadying myself with my hands against the metal of the ship. The ship only rocked once before steadying, and I stood back up. The boom sounded like thunder... which meant someone was lightningbending. Just one strike though. My heart stopped.

I dashed for the escape hatch, dropped down it as quickly as I could, and stashed my bag behind the ladder. I pulled my glove on tighter as I snuck through the corridors, making my way down toward the control room. I needed to move fast, but I couldn't give up my element of surprise.

On the floor above the control room, I heard someone running in the corridor. I paused and listened. They were getting closer. I waited around a corner until they approached, then ambushed them with a sucker-punch to the side of the head. He went down, and I recognized the lightningbender who'd tried to shock me and taken Korra. I gave him a shock from my glove for good measure, then bolted for the control room again. One down, three to go.

I stopped at the bottom of the stairs and steadied myself. One last deep breath, and then I kicked open the door to the control room and made a dash for the first body I saw. I only made it two steps before I pulled up short. It was the non-bender I'd fought with, but he was slumped on the floor unconscious, his back to the heavily damaged controls. I looked around the room to see another man lying on his chest, also unconscious, between a three-foot-square platinum box and a door to another room. One of the other lightningbenders.

I heard wind rushing in the other room and slowly pushed open the door near the bender. The last Red Lotus member lay in the corner of the adjoining room, bleeding lightly from his jaw, and again unconscious. The wall to my left had been ripped apart, leaving a gaping hole of twisted metal.

Suddenly, I heard footsteps behind me, and turned just in time to duck the control stick that the non-bender swung at my head. He was smart and swung one-handed, leaving his free hand open to go for a gut-shot in the middle of my dodge. I managed to step into it, the blow glancing off my hip instead. He'd overcommitted to the punch, especially in the middle of the swing, and I slipped around behind him, grabbing the stick at the end of his swing as he stumbled forward slightly from the overaggressive blow. With a twist, I relieved him of his make-shift weapon, but he recovered almost instantly, turning his stumbling forward step into an anchor for a powerful kick with his other leg.

I avoided the hit, casting aside the stick, and grabbed his leg that he'd thrust past me. He took the opportunity to swing at me with his anchor leg instead, and I caught that too, only for him to twist into an attempted flip. I released him as soon as I felt the twist, but it still knocked me off balance, and he took the time to recover into a real fighting stance. I did the same, waiting for him to make the first move.

"You're not bad," he taunted.

"Better than you."

I saw his muscles tense, his eyes widen just a bit, and I knew exactly what was coming. The same move he'd led with back at the palace, a series of quick jabs designed to keep me from being able to respond. He was just trying to stall until one of his bending buddies woke up. I wasn't going to let that happen.

Before he even took his first step into a punch, I had a hand on the ground. His first shot was predictable because it was optimal, a center-of-mass blow. I pulled into a handstand just to the side of where I knew his punch would land and wrapped my calves around his head. I saw his eyes widen in shock as I rolled backward, pulling him off his feet. I leapt to my feet again as I threw him down hard on his back. Before he could register, my knee was on his chest, my glove raised. I sparked its energy so he knew what he was dealing with.

"Where's the Avatar? What did you do to her?"

"We didn't do anything," he spat. I thrust my glove down, stopping just inches from his face. He flinched.

I glared into his eyes between the fingers of the glove. "Wrong answer. Let's try again. Where. Is. Korra?"

"I don't know! She was all chained up, and Daran was about to stick her in the box. I was steering, then I heard a thud and turned around before I got knocked back into the control panel. I don't remember anything until waking up and seeing you!"

I gritted my teeth, then shoved my hand into his face. He slumped. I quickly went and shocked the other two benders as well, just to be on the safe side. Then I turned to the hole in the wall. I'd assumed it was from the lightning strike I'd heard, but on a closer look, there were no scorch marks. It was all clean. Like it had been metalbent. "Korra..."

* * *

I woke up with a pounding headache, so I just kept my eyes closed, hoping to go back to sleep. Whatever I was laying on was pretty hard and uncomfortable though. My muscles were too sore and stiff for me to care. _What'd you do to yourself this time, Korra?_ I felt like I'd been hit by a truck.

I was forced to abandon my hopes for a nap when I suddenly felt myself being dragged across the metal floor by my feet. More accurately, by my ankles, which I now realized were chained together. My wrists too. My eyes snapped open and I looked to the man who was dragging me toward a metallic box. He must have felt me jerk awake, because he turned back to look at me.

I didn't know what was going on, but I knew I didn't want to go in that box. I bent in half, reaching up and slipping the chain between my wrists behind his head. His eyes started to widen in comprehension as I pulled backwards, bending my legs at the same time, slamming his face into my knee. He was out cold instantly.

I heard a confused grunt to my left. Another man, this one at some control panel. I jumped to my feet as he turned around, and I bent a blast of air at him as hard as I could with my hands bound. It knocked him straight off his feet and back into the panel, which crumpled a decent bit, and he slid to the ground. I looked between the two of them briefly, wondering what they wanted with me, before I heard a door open behind me.

I turned to find a third man, this one starting to stretch, electricity sparking from his arms. I dove toward him as he extended his arm, a bolt of lightning shooting over my head and into the side of the box meant for me. The sound of the thunder was incredible, echoing through the metal room. I came up inside the man's stance with a two-fisted uppercut that connected with his chin, lifting him off his feet. While he was in mid air, I jumped and kicked, sending a column of air straight into his chest. He flew across the room he'd come from and slammed into the wall in the corner. The force of the impact set the room rocking, but not like we were on a boat. When he didn't move, I turned back to where there were windows near the man at the control panel. All I could see was the night sky.

I turned to the wall next to me and pushed against it with my bending. A hole opened up, and I shoved it wider until I could see out. I looked down and saw the ocean, hundreds of feet below. Up just showed a huge curve of metal. An airship. I tried to get an idea of where we were flying, but all I could see was a few islands. I had no idea. But I wasn't hanging around for more men to show up and fight me. I pushed the wall open wider, then leaped out, pointing myself at the water below so that I could waterbend a cushion to soften my entry when I got close.

I didn't know where I was going, but I knew I was getting as far away from that airship as possible. With the help of a little waterbending, I swam for the closest island. Maybe there I'd be able to figure out where I was, or what was going on. After a nap.

* * *

I stood there, looking out the hole in the wall Korra had bent for herself. Where could she have gone? She didn't have her glider, and firebending for a speed boost wouldn't have gotten her to any of the islands we were near. She must have dropped into the ocean. I scanned the waves, looking for any disturbance, but it was too dark to see much of anything.

I tried to reason out where she must be. _If she jumped into the ocean, she's probably heading for one of the islands. After the day she's had, she'll need a rest. Unless she's just heading straight back for the capitol..._ _Okay, so, two possibilities._ _It can't have been more than 10 minutes at this point since she escaped._ I looked back along the airship's path. _So she would have jumped... somewhere back there._ I went to the dashboard at the front of the ship, hoping to find out its speed so I could approximate where we would have been. But the control panel was completely smashed, all the dials and gauges were either reading zero or weren't in good enough shape to read anything. The radio was smashed too, I couldn't even try to contact the capitol for help.

I went back to the hole and carefully leaned out, gauging the wind speed. It was pretty high, higher than I usually got driving around Republic City, so we had to be going 40, maybe 50 miles per hour, depending on how hard the wind was actually blowing. For 10 minutes, that'd mean... she could have jumped out as much as _eight miles_ back. There was no way to turn the airship around either. This wasn't going to be easy.

I leaned out the hole again, scanning the nearby islands. _If she jumped out back there... she'd probably head for one of those three islands._ The one on the right was the biggest, which might mean that it would be her first choice, but it also meant that it would be the hardest one to find her on. Plus, it was the farthest one away from the ship at this point. I decided I'd just have to start with the one closest to me and work my way across.

I made my way back out of the control room and down the hall to the left to where I knew the emergency supply closet was. This was an older model, one my father had designed when I was a girl, but it was still a Future Industries airship, so I knew it like the back of my hand. Opening up the closet, I grabbed one of the parachutes and strapped it on.

Looking down at the rest of the parachutes, a thought struck me. What would the men I'd knocked out do when they woke up? They couldn't steer their airship, at least not without several hours of improvisation, if they even knew how the mechanics of the thing worked, but they'd be able to get control of it eventually. Or they could jump out like I was with the parachutes. Or their Red Lotus friends could come and get them.

They wanted to kill Korra. I hated the thought of them walking away from this, or worse, coming back after her again. With a little tinkering, I could have rigged the ship to have a major engine failure in about half an hour, causing it to explode. That might have gotten the capitol's attention... or the rest of the Red Lotus. I could throw them all out of the hole into the ocean where they'd probably drown. I could just take them all out, and then we wouldn't have to worry about these four any more. Mako had done it; Su had done it. I might have even done it earlier with that guy at the palace. It would be easy.

Those thoughts turned my stomach. As much as I hated these men, they were defenseless. I didn't think I could do something like that. Mako and Su didn't have a choice, they were fighting for their lives. The same was true back at the palace, and I didn't even know whether that guy survived or not. This was different. They weren't innocent, but killing them wasn't a life or death decision. I couldn't stand the thought of blood on my hands like that. Killing whoever was against us... we'd hardly be different from them. I couldn't do it.

But that didn't mean I had to make things easy for them. I ran back up the stairs to the top level of the ship and retrieved my bag, then found the engine room. A toolbox in the corner provided the wrench, and with a few things tightened and a few others loosened, the airship was soon cruising along even faster. By the time they woke up, they'd be miles and miles from me and Korra.

Heading back down to the bottom level, I grabbed the rest of the parachutes too. I threw them all out of Korra's hole, watching as they slowly fell into the ocean. Maybe that would buy us some more time too, making the Red Lotus send a group to save these guys. I steadied myself, took a deep breath, then took a running leap out of the hole Korra had left. As soon as I was clear of the ship's airspace, I opened my chute and drifted away. I wasn't going to glide all the way to the island I'd chosen to search first, but I needed to get as close as I could in the air. This wasn't going to be an easy swim.


	7. The Clouds Gather

Even with my waterbending, the swim to the island was rough, and having my wrists and ankles bound didn't help. The long swim didn't do any favors for my sore everything either. I tried to metalbend the chains and cuffs before I fell asleep, but got nothing. I wasn't too surprised, anybody who wanted to keep me locked up knew to use platinum. They'd have to wait until I wasn't so exhausted. I sprawled right out on the beach and was out right away.

I felt a lot better when I woke up the next day. I had no idea what time it was, clouds had rolled in overnight and completely covered the sky so it was impossible to tell. I sat up and shook sand out of my hair, then turned my attention to the shackles. I could burn through the chains enough to pull them apart, but I wasn't going to be able to get the cuffs off that way. I'd just have to put up with them for now.

Then I noticed what I was wearing. I didn't remember having any clothes like this. They looked Fire Nation. That made a little bit of sense from what I could tell about the island I was on, but I didn't figure my kidnappers would have bothered to change my clothes. _Maybe I lost part of my memory again. It better come back soon, I can't exactly afford a spontaneous trip to the Tree of Time right now._ I tried not to worry about it. I had platinum to melt.

The first link near my left wrist burned through easy enough. I pulled it open and the chain fell away, still attached to the cuff on my right. I watched it dangle. I didn't like having it there. It reminded me of that other me, the one that had haunted me before I'd gotten the last of Zaheer's poison out. My stomach turned and I felt a cold sweat start. I had never found out what she was, but she'd disappeared once I got the poison out, except for that one hallucination when I was fighting Kuvira for Zaofu. I had worked through my emotional baggage, so she'd stopped tormenting me, but just because I'd accepted what happened to me didn't mean I liked it. It wasn't holding me back any more, but it still hurt to think about.

I burned through the link on my right too, then did the same for both of my feet. No chains, just manacles. I could deal with that.

I stood up and stretched now that my limbs were free, then glanced around. With the clouds so thick overhead, I couldn't really tell which direction was which. I couldn't see anything offshore to really give me a clue either, just a few nearby islands that were smaller than this one. I figured my best bet would be to wait here until I could figure out which direction to go, rather than dashing off the wrong way and ending up in open ocean. _Asami'd know what to do,_ I thought. _She'd make a compass out of a palm leaf or something and have us headed the right direction in no time._

I thought about her, at home in Republic City with me suddenly missing, and during her week off. She was probably really worried, I never left town without at least letting her know first, no matter how urgent the situation calling me away was. She wouldn't be mad when I got back, that wasn't her style. She'd just be glad I was okay. She was so sweet.

I nodded to myself. If I was going to just be sitting here on this island for now anyway, I might as well see if I could make her something. It'd make me feel better about being gone for her break, and it'd be kind of a way to apologize, even if this wasn't really my fault. I'd even been sort of planning on making her something, but I had plenty of other things to keep me busy and had never stopped to actually do it. This was a perfect opportunity, apart from the lack of resources. I turned around to see what I had to work with.

Not too far from where I came ashore was a hill, except it was almost a perfect cone and was a rusty shade of red. Someone had mentioned cinder cones when I learned about the Fire Nation when I was little, but this was my first time seeing one. I explored around its edge, testing out my bending on the different types of rocks that made up the mound. Before long, I found just what I wanted. I took a few minutes to gather plenty of the various stones I'd need, then found a decently clear and flat spot and got to work.

* * *

Swimming fully dressed while wearing a backpack was really difficult. I was just glad that I'd brought a waterproof case for my electrical parts, and that I'd made my glove at least water resistant when I redesigned it. Once I reached the island, I barely managed to drag myself out of tide range before exhaustion took me. Driving a boat to another country, fighting multiple benders and martial artists, chasing down an airship, and swimming way too far in open water all in one day could really take it out of a girl. Clouds had already rolled in when I woke up, but it was definitely still morning. I sat up, trying to massage away a slight headache with one hand.

 _And to think, less than twenty-four hours ago, we were having lunch at Kwong's. Everybody else is probably waking up with hangovers after Mako's party, and they won't even think to be worried about us. They think we're on vacation. Mako's probably more annoyed that we ditched him again. What a difference a day makes,_ I thought dryly.

I tightened the braid Korra had done for me, then slowly pushed myself to my feet, set on exploring the island. It wouldn't take long, this was the smallest of the three, and sure enough within the hour I was confident that she wasn't there. I made my way to the west end and sighed. I was loathe to get in the water again, it would take forever for my clothes to dry with the sky overcast, but I didn't really have a choice. Korra had no way of knowing that I was here, and it was obvious that she expected me not to be by how she abandoned the airship immediately. I had to find her while she was still here or I'd have to figure out a way back to the capital on my own. So, into the ocean I went again, swimming the relatively narrow channel to the medium-sized island of the trio.

This one would be more challenging. The small one was mostly long and narrow, so there wasn't that much interior space to search. I was almost able to just walk down the middle of it and see the shore on both sides. This one was practically a circle. I'd have to be pretty systematic about my search to make sure I didn't miss her.

I started with a perimeter sweep, which didn't reveal any footprints or other signs, but she could have easily cleared those away with bending if she was trying to cover her tracks from the Red Lotus. It started raining just a few minutes after I began my interior search. I kept calling out for Korra as I snaked my way back and forth across the area, but I wasn't sure she'd be able to hear me over the noise from the raindrops on the almost jungle-like canopy. At least the trees were mostly keeping me from getting even more soaked.

Near the center of the island, there was a tree that stood apart from the rest, bigger around and taller than the others. It made me think of how Korra described the Banyan Grove tree. Closing my eyes, I pressed my hand to one of its exposed roots. I tried to clear my mind, to feel the universe, but nothing happened. _Well, it's not like I'm a particularly spiritual person,_ I reasoned. I didn't even know if this thing was spiritually charged or just a big tree.

As I turned away to continue my search, the hair on my neck stood up. I hadn't noticed anything that had put me on edge, it just happened, and _that_ put me on edge. The feeling spread quickly, a tingling rushing down my left arm. My stomach tightened and I suddenly knew what it was. I immediately bolted to the right as hard as I could just as a huge flash of lightning struck the massive tree.

The instantaneous thunderclap was deafening and the shockwave knocked me off my feet as bark flew from the tree's trunk. I landed hard in the mud, then looked up to an enormous cracking noise. A gigantic limb split off from the tree's canopy, bringing nearly a third of the treetop with it. It almost seemed to be falling in slow motion as it dropped toward me, but I knew I had seconds at best. I scrambled for footing in the mud and dove to the side, trying to escape being crushed.

The mass of wood and leaves crashed down just behind me, mud flying everywhere from the impact. As things finally settled, I looked back toward the tree trunk. The splintered end of the branch that the lightning had severed stuck up above the foliage, charred and jagged. Something slowly escaped from the split wood, almost like a liquid that hung in the air, a mixture of pale blue and deep purple. It reminded me of a spirit, but this seemed to have even less of a definitive form than they usually did.

The purple slowly extracted itself from the blue, creating two masses of similar size. I watched, but they just hung there, so I carefully regained my footing. Without warning, the purple one flew straight towards me. I tried to duck, but it followed my movement and found my shoulder. There was no collision, no sensation of impact, just the feeling of a cold wind spreading across my skin. It was gone again in an instant, but while it was there, it felt like a pressure on my heart, like everything about me was suddenly wrong. The blue thing slowly began swirling, and my thoughts grew fuzzy. I raised one shaking hand to my head, then stumbled as my knees felt weak. I couldn't think and my vision swam as I struggled to stay standing. The last thing I saw was the blue mass form into a perfect sphere and begin floating toward me before I passed out.

* * *

I was almost finished with the main part of Asami's gift when it started to rain. I never minded a little water, I'd been bending it almost since I could walk, so I just kept working. Finally satisfied, I held it up to get a look at it from a different angle. That's when I caught a huge flash of lightning out of the corner of my eye. I turned in time to see that it had struck a tall tree near the middle of the next island over, one that stuck up much higher than the rest. Smoke started to rise from the tree as the thunder reached me, and I watched as a huge portion of the treetop split off with a crack that I could hear even at that distance.

I got up immediately, dropping the gift into my pocket as I headed for the other island. I could suddenly feel a spike in spiritual energy over there, but it didn't feel the same as usual. I had to check it out.

A little waterbending jet across the channel and some quick jungle navigation led me straight to the heart of the other island. The tree that was struck had a big clearing around it, and I pulled up short when I came to it. It was mostly empty, just the limb that had fallen, a blue spirit and a purple spirit that was maybe twice as big both floating near the branch, and on the other side of all of that... "Asami?"

She was definitely unconscious, slumped over in the mud. My mind raced. _What is she doing here? How is she here? Was she on that airship? Spirits, I hope she's alright!_

I started to cross the clearing to help her, but I didn't even make it half way before the spirits hovering over the fallen limb started fighting, slamming into one another and zipping across the clearing. Every time I tried to move, one of them would zip by my head too close for comfort. I didn't have time for them to get their fight over with, so I drew up some water and began bending it to purify the spirits, hoping that would help and I could get to my girlfriend.

It held them together inside the water, and light built up even before I could really begin the purification. In fact, I didn't even get to complete the helix. They blasted apart from each other, zipping right out of my bending. The blue one came to a stop a few feet to my left, but the purple one recovered more quickly and immediately shot across the clearing again toward the blue one. At the last second, it suddenly swerved toward me. My eyes widened in shock, but that was all the time I had for a reaction before it slammed right into me.

It passed straight through and out, but I felt it while it was there. The Avatar State activated in reflex, Raava taking control to kick the spiritual invader out of her vessel, but it was already gone. In that split second, I felt a darkness wash over me. It almost felt like Unalaq trying to corrupt my spirit, and it left an ache in the center of my chest. I doubled over and fell to one knee, my breathing quick and shallow, as the Avatar State faded.

I looked up to see the purple spirit curve around to slam into the blue one again before racing off into the trees. The blue one chased it immediately. _Raava... what was that?_

 _A dark spirit. Or, more precisely, the dark part of a spirit._ I worked to slow my breathing as she explained. _All spirits have both dark and light inside of them. This dichotomy is usually confined to the spirit's physical form, just as the dark and light of a human's heart are confined to their body and spirit. The pair you just witnessed, however, were two halves of the same spirit: the light and the dark. I do not know how they became separated, but they will surely merge again before long. Just as Vaatu and I cannot exist without each other, the dark and light of other spirits cannot exist separately for long. The universe will draw them back together._

There was still an ache deep in my core, but Raava didn't seem concerned, so I tried to ignore it. I'd just have to deal with that spirit if I came across it again. I had more important things to worry about, I had to help Asami. I stood back up and turned toward her motionless body, only to be confronted with something I'd hoped I had seen the last of: the poisoned me.


	8. The Ghosts of Battles Past

_He was completely focused on the plasma saws. I kept my eyes on Kuvira's giant as the ice encasing its arm popped and cracked. "We need to get out of here."_

 _"Almost there," he replied. I could see through his window, it wasn't quite half done. Ice fell onto the glass above me, and I looked up to see more chunks breaking off._

 _I started to really worry. We didn't have enough time. The giant was going to break free, we'd have to try again in another spot. "We have to go now!"_

 _60%. "Almost there!" 70%. "Almost there!" 80%._

 _The ice shattered and the arm burst free with a jerk. It pulled up, then started to arc down toward us. My worry turned to panic. "Dad, now!"_

 _I could barely hear him, he was almost whispering. "Goodbye, Asami. I love you." I heard the hatch behind me blow itself away, and I watched in shock as my seat ejected... and his didn't. I cried out for him as I was thrust away, but only a split second later, the giant's hand swept in. There was a huge crash of metal on metal as my parachute deployed. I reached out instinctively, but there was nothing I could do. The giant's hand peeled away to reveal the smoking husk of the hummingbird suit. He was gone._

 _I noticed the hole left in the giant by his sacrifice as I turned away. I couldn't look. My stomach clenched and my arms shook. I screamed at the ground and the rest of me started shaking too as I cried. When my seat landed a few blocks away, I unfastened my restraints and collapsed._

 _Why? If he'd just listened, we could have flown away. We could have tried to come back to that spot, got in a few more seconds to finish it. We might have broken through eventually. But he knew he could finish it if he stayed. He decided getting in was worth more than his life._

 _He was wrong. I'd been without him for years, and just when I'd gotten him back to fill the hole he left, he tore me empty again. And I couldn't get him back this time. I hadn't known I wanted him back the last time, but this was different. He should have listened! But there had been nothing I could do. I tried so hard, but in the end, I couldn't help the people I cared about. Again._

 _I heard a colossal sound of tearing metal and looked up through my tears to Kuvira's platinum monstrosity. The giant was tearing one of its arms off, and I watched as it flung the limb away. I realized everyone else must have made it in through the hole my father made for them. His plan worked._

 _That's when the mech stopped moving. It just stood there, and I could just see flashes of orange light shining out of the cockpit. Firebending. It could have been Mako, but I knew it wasn't. Korra was fighting Kuvira. She told me about their fight at Zaofu, and knowing Korra, she was facing Kuvira alone again. Worry built up in my stomach again even as my heart still ached. I wiped my eyes with my sleeve and forced myself to stand up. I hadn't been able to do anything for my dad. I had to do everything I could for Korra._

 _The only way I was going to be able to help her was with air support. There was still a small airfield on the other side of Future Industries Tower that Kuvira's troops probably hadn't made it to yet, I thought I might be able to find an airplane there. I broke into a sprint. I had to move fast, the longer the battle lasted the more likely I would be too late._

 _I only made it a couple of blocks before a prickle on the back of my neck made me stop. Everything started turning purple, and I turned around only to shield my eyes from an incredible light in the giant's chest. It grew until I had to shut my eyes completely, then suddenly stopped before shining again as a sound like Kuvira's weapon only twice as loud echoed through the city. The shockwave nearly knocked me off my feet, and a second one followed, like the entire city had fallen in the explosion._

 _When I could see again, I looked to where the giant had been. There was nothing, only a growing cloud of dust. Despair tightened its grip on my heart. I'd already lost my father that day, and everyone else I cared about had been in that giant. Korra was in there. And it had just been destroyed. Nothing I could do. I couldn't help her. Again. Tears welled up again and my vision blurred as I ran back toward the site. I wouldn't have seen anything anyway._

* * *

I stumbled backward. "No... it's, it's been _years_. I'm not... you can't..." The dark me just stood there, staring with those shining white eyes. I shook my head in disbelief. "She's not real. She's just in my mind." I closed my eyes and thought back on what had happened to me when I was poisoned, what Zaheer had done to me. I opened myself to honesty and really looked. I wasn't carrying that around again. I had accepted it, and I still accepted it. I couldn't forget it, and it still hurt, but I could put it behind me. I _had_ put it behind me.

I opened my eyes again, but she was still there. I took another step back. "Why?" I stepped back forward and clenched my fists, angry at my weakness. "I'm over it! I'm done with you!" She didn't react. My hands shook as I pressed my face into them. "You're not real. You're not real! I've already dealt with you! Why are you here?!" I was practically screaming as I tore my hands away from my eyes, tears trailing off of them. The forest swallowed my words. She still hadn't moved, not even an inch.

I grit my teeth in frustration, then cried out as I hurled a fireball at her. She disappeared, letting the flames pass through where she'd been harmlessly before reappearing and launching her chain at me. It wrapped around my wrist and I grabbed it with my other hand, trying to pull her off balance, but it was no good. She was way stronger than me and pulled me off my feet instead. I sprawled in the mud, but quickly pushed myself back up and earthbent at her. She sped away from that too.

I roughly wiped at my eyes, then dropped into a loose stance, one I hadn't used much since my pro-bending days, and started firing off quick firebending jabs. I must have shot almost thirty rapid-fire bursts of flame at her and not one landed. She was too fast. It was almost like she knew what I was doing before I did it. She started firing shots back between her bursts of speed. Her stance was lazy and sloppy, just like it had been years ago, like she wasn't even really trying. I ducked and dodged a bunch of them before a water strike found my shoulder. I cried out in pain and grabbed the spot as I fell to one knee. It hurt way more than I'd expected. I pulled my hand back to find a burn mark. I hadn't noticed it before, it felt fine as long as nothing touched it. It wasn't too fresh though, so I knew it wasn't from her.

While I was distracted, she took the chance to launch a swarm of fireballs at me. I ran to the side, but the flames caught up quick, so I turned to bend them around me... but they wouldn't bend. The blast knocked me off my feet and I slid through the mud to the edge of the clearing. _Did that shot mess up my bending?_ Half panicked, I threw a wild fireball at her from the ground. It worked fine... my firebending was fine, so why couldn't I bend hers? I realized I hadn't even felt any heat from her fire either. What was going on?

I looked past her to where Asami was still laying. This wasn't working. I scrambled up to make a run for it. If I could just escape, I could come back for Asami once the dark me was gone. But I didn't make it very far. That chain lashed out again and wrapped around my ankle, jerking me back into the clearing and slamming me to the ground. I pushed myself up again and she sent a jet of flame at me. I knew I couldn't bend it, so I raised up an earth wall to block it. The flames spilled around the wall and I waited for an opening.

As soon as the flames stopped, I earthbent the wall at her. I knew she'd dodge it, but she showed back up directly in front of me again, so the stream of fire I sent right after it hit her full force. I smirked as I kept the fire up for as long as I could. When I finally let it drop, my jaw and my spirits dropped too. She'd just taken it, the full fire blast to the face, and not even flinched. I took a step back. I hadn't been scared like this since the last time she showed up. How was I supposed to do this?

* * *

 _I was sitting at my desk in my office at the estate. It used to be my father's desk and my father's office. I'd have loved to have my home facilities set up somewhere else, but with Mako and Bolin's family staying with me, this was the only room available for it. I was engrossed in the schematic for the electric glove I'd become so used to using, the one my father had designed. I was tired of his equalist ties haunting me in everything, even my fighting, so I'd decided to improve it and make it mine. It was almost midnight; I'd been at it for hours._

 _A sudden noise in the silence made me jump. I looked down at the papers in front of me to find a large wet spot slowly growing, a fresh drop of water on the parchment. I felt my cheek and was surprised to find tears. I held my damp fingers up and looked at them, like I expected the water to tell me why it left my eyes. That wasn't the first time that had happened. It felt like every part of my life was colored with a shade of sadness lately. Still, I was pretty sure my days only seemed dark when compared to the light she filled them with when she was here._

 _It had been a year, and I hadn't gotten a single letter. No one had. I wanted to visit her so badly, but if she couldn't even write to me, I couldn't imagine that she'd want to see me. Or maybe it was that she didn't want me to see her. I still sent her a letter every week, sometimes more. I wrote one almost every day, but I refused to send her anything negative. Letters were pretty much the only thing I could do to try to help her at this point. It didn't really feel like much. Half of them were confessions about my feelings for her, too. I couldn't send those either. She didn't need complications, and I had no reason to think she'd share my crush._

 _A knock on my office door pulled me out of my head. I quickly dabbed at my eyes, then responded, "Come in." It was one of my staff._

 _"The mail, miss. You must have missed it in the foyer earlier."_

 _I tried to smile, but I'd gotten my hopes up only to be let down far too many times by then to keep smiling at the mail. "Thank you, Rena. Just leave it there," I gestured to the corner of my desk. "I'll get to it in a minute."_

 _She strode over and set the stack of envelopes down, then quietly left. As the door clicked closed again, I glanced at the mail. Most of it was standard, a dozen business things and a few bills. But something stood out this time. Among the full-size shipping envelopes, the corner of a letter poked out. My heart swelled. Finally, word from Korra! It had been so long, I was starting to get really worried._

 _I grabbed for the letter in a frenzy, pulling the thin white envelope out as the rest of the thicker yellow ones dropped to the floor. I turned it over and immediately recognized the handwriting. But it wasn't hers. It was my father's._

 _My heart shattered. The unopened letter fell from my hands as tears flowed again, but I knew why they were there now. I slumped onto my desk, sobbing into my schematic. I don't know how long I cried, but eventually I seemed to run out of tears, and my heartache turned to bitterness. I picked my head up off the desk and glared at the letter. How could he? After everything he'd already put me through? Why now? I picked up the letter and hurled it across the room, then covered my eyes and dry-sobbed a bit more._

 _I felt empty and numb when the hysterics finally died down. I found I'd been staring into the corner of the room without realizing it. My eyes refocused and I gazed at the small refrigerator that sat in that corner. He'd kept it there for particularly boisterous business meetings. I shuffled over and pulled it open. Still stocked with a few different things, untouched from when he still ran the company. Scotch, bourbon... good drinks, but they reminded me too much of him, when he'd share them with me on special occasions. I reached for a bottle of gin instead._

 _I took one of the glasses that were kept with the unit and filled it a third of the way with gin before topping it off with tonic water. I took the bottles with me as I sat in one of the visitors' chairs. I tried to handle the drink slowly, swirling it as I glared at the wall. It was still empty before I knew it. The second fill was half gin and I didn't bother trying to keep it slow. I think the third was more than half, and it accompanied me as I paced the room. The fourth didn't want any tonic, and it listened while I ranted about my father and cried over Korra. I abandoned the glass entirely after that, and the pint bottle didn't last much longer. I woke up the next morning slumped on my desk with a blanket over my shoulders, the bottle still in my hand and ink in my hair. The schematic for the glove was practically destroyed. That wasn't the last time I ruined a schematic that way._

* * *

I was starting to get desperate and seriously worried. Not even a face full of fire had slowed her down. She swung back with a dozen water whips and I barely managed to avoid them all with the help of a little bending. I had to find some way to hit her more. One shot hadn't done anything, but she wasn't letting me run and she had to wear down eventually, right? But she was _so_ fast, if I could just stop her from dodging everything...

I got an idea and quickly earthbent the ground around her feet up to hold her in place. She immediately turned her focus to the stone shackles, so the chunk of earth I bent up next hit home right in the side of her head. The earth broke around her like she was made of steel and the two fire blasts and stream of water I sent after it had no more effect. She broke out of the restraints like they hardly even bothered her using her chain, then threw it at me again. I managed to knock it off course with a quick earthbending pillar.

This wasn't working either, even when I did land something, it didn't do anything, and I had to work way too hard to get them. I had to try something else. I swept my arms wide to gather air, then blanketed the entire area between us with a huge gust of wind. She dashed to the side and avoided it, reappearing on my left with a hand full of flames. I went flying again, but still couldn't understand why her flames didn't burn me. I couldn't bend them, I should have been scorched.

I got up to one knee and glared at her. I didn't have time to figure it out, she was back on the attack, her chain lashing out around my wrist to keep me from avoiding a follow-up waterbending strike. I broke her waterbending with another earth pillar, but she just pulled me off my feet by the chain and slammed me into a tree instead.

I steadied myself against the tree and tried to catch my breath as I stood up. I couldn't stop asking myself why, flashing back to the months she'd tormented me before. But I didn't have time to dwell on it. If I let my focus slip, I'd stand even less of a chance than I already did, and Asami needed my help. I used airbending to kick off of the tree's trunk toward her. I thought maybe I could land more blows up close. She teleported away before I could close the distance. _Why would she run from me?_ _She's been kicking my butt._ Her chain immediately flew my way again. _Why should she let me change things if she's already winning, I guess._ I blocked the chain with more earthbending, I was getting better at that. I decided to take my area airbending attack from before up a notch, sweeping a powerful wind into a full circle around me. _There's no way she can avoid that._

She disappeared anyway, then reappeared above me with a fireball. I didn't see that coming. I dove out of the way and she landed hard a few feet from where I'd been, leaving a small crater in the soft earth. She stood up to full height again and stared at me. Still no fighting pose, just an aura of intimidation and the sense that she was untouchable. I pulled back both arms, then thrust them forward with a full-force firebending stream. She teleported out of the way again and I saw what was behind her. My flames were headed straight for Asami.

I panicked and dug deeper in my power, reaching out and dissipating the flames before they could reach her. It took a lot of effort to firebend something so far away. My arms dropped to my sides as I tried to catch my breath. The dark me took the chance to score two more quick waterbending strikes to my side, and I went flying again. As I looked up at her out of the mud as she turned her head to look at Asami. It seemed like she hadn't noticed my girlfriend before. She turned the rest of her body too and took a step toward Asami and my fear and self-doubt turned to rage and desperation. Everything blurred whiter as the Avatar State took hold of me.

* * *

 _I ran out of the cave where they'd been holding the airbenders and looked up. Zaheer and Korra flew overhead. She was incredible, and he was completely out-matched: he was managing to avoid all of her attacks, but if he slipped up even once, she'd have won in an instant. But Zaheer wouldn't be fighting if he wasn't confident he could win. Jinora and the other airbenders started to whip up a tornado as I helplessly watched Korra fight._

 _I hated that feeling, being helpless. I worked hard to avoid it, but it still plagued me sometimes. Even surrounded by benders like I had been since joining Korra, I almost never felt out of my depth. Sometimes uncomfortable, but there always seemed to be something I could do. I could come up with a plan, or build something to help. But with them up in the sky, I was completely useless. Even if I had a plane, it wouldn't have helped. Zaheer would be able to avoid anything I could do without it even throwing him off._

 _Korra faltered and fell to a ledge on the cliff face, and my heart sank. Zaheer swooped up and I could just make Korra out as she stood back up, a small puff of fire appearing briefly, but there was no follow up. Something was stopping her. Zaheer struck, back and forth, and Korra flopped like a rag doll. Every blow to her felt like one to me. She landed on top of a stone pillar and rolled to a stop right at the edge, one arm hanging off. My heart fell to my stomach as she just lay there._

 _I already knew I loved her. It started during Harmonic Convergence. Her and all the other benders were at the portals to stop Unalaq and Vaatu. I was back at the healing hut because that's what Korra needed from me. Everyone was waiting to learn the fate of the world, but Korra was the only thing I could think about. I realized that Korra was my world. I cared more about her coming back than stopping the darkness. We'd gotten so close since then: driving around Republic City, flying all over the Earth Kingdom together; we'd had so much time to just talk. I hated her giving herself up, but I knew it was her call and it wasn't my place to stop her. I just had to do everything I could for her. And right then, everything I could was exactly nothing._

 _I saw her lift up, but not on her own. Zaheer had her in his airbending, and I watched it surround her head as well. I didn't want to look away, I had to know if she made it, but the wind from the airbenders' tornado grew too strong. I had to turn away. I covered my head and hoped._

 _Not a minute later, I heard one loud thud, then a louder one. As the wind died down, I looked up to Korra standing in the middle of a small crater with Zaheer flat on his back nearby. He groaned as the Beifongs imprisoned him, and my heart swelled._

 _Then it burst. Korra collapsed. For a split second, I felt like I couldn't even move, like I might collapse too. Tonraq, Bolin, and Mako ran to her side, and their motion kick-started me to follow. Tonraq got there first and held Korra in his arms, pleading with her to hang on. I clasped my hands over my chest, half praying to all the spirits that ever were, half trying to check whether my own heart was still in place and beating. I felt like I should be crying, but no tears came. Maybe I was in shock, but I just stared._

 _Korra reached up to her father's face, then her arm dropped, her eyes closed, and her presence faded. There was nothing I could do, I couldn't help her. And I never even got to tell her. Zaheer cried out in victory. My spirit cried out in agony._

* * *

Raava swept our arms in a large circle and a sphere of swirling air surrounded Asami. Shifting our weight, we sent a giant burst of air in all directions. It passed right around Asami's protective bubble, but knocked the dark Korra back. As a twister built up below us, lifting us into the air, she turned to face us again, Asami forgotten. Her eyes were wider, angrier, more focused than I'd seen them.

A tornado to match ours appeared around her feet and she lifted up too. With both hands, we blasted a huge stream of fire at her as her tornado twisted to bring her around. Our flames hit, but that didn't stop her from arcing toward us. We glided to the side, keeping the flames up, but she curved through them and flew through the body of our whirlwind. With our support cut off, we dropped, but we kept our fire blast up until we got near the ground, then airbent a cushion to land with.

When our flames stopped, she arced upward, then turned to blast straight down, right toward Asami. Thinking fast, we earthbent a dome over my girlfriend, then waterbent dozens of ice shards covering the dome and followed it up with the strongest stream of air we could manage, all before Dark Korra made it half way down.

The wind blast threw her off balance and she slammed into the spikes hard, shattering several of them. A huge cloud of dust burst out from her impact, but the stone dome held, and everything went still. We relaxed our pose and Raava let the Avatar State fade. I was breathing hard and my hands were shaking. I'd never managed to do anything against her before. I knew there was no way I'd really won, but for the first time since I first saw her, I hadn't lost. Maybe she would leave me alone now that she knew my power and I could finally get Asami some help.

But that's when she struck again. As the dust settled, her chain lashed out from the ice shards on the dome and wrapped around my leg. She pulled me off my feet and threw me into a nearby tree trunk. I lay in the mud for a second before I managed to push myself up to one elbow. Dark Korra had whipped her chain around and destroyed the rest of the ice and was working on breaking through the dome. It only took her a few swings before a huge crack split opened up and my heart stopped. I stood up as she stomped hard and a big chunk of stone broke away under her foot. She tore the dome open as I reactivated the Avatar State. I lifted as big a chunk of earth as I could. She drew her fist back, flames igniting around it, and I launched into the air, throwing the hill-sized boulder ahead of me with everything I had.

* * *

I slowly peeled my eyes open, but I couldn't see anything. I rolled over onto my back and groaned. My mouth tasted like fresh tears and my cheeks were stiff from dry ones. They were still flowing as I laid there, streaming from the corners of my eyes into my hair. My breathing was shaky. _It's all in the past, 'Sami. You're stronger now. He may be gone, but you patched things up. And you didn't lose Korra. She's with you. Or she was... until you couldn't protect her from the Red Lotus._

That's when the sound of impact above me shook the ground. A crack of light split through the darkness, then a whole chunk of the blackness tore away. I tried to peer through the sudden light, and something came into focus... "Korra?"

She looked just like she had in my dream, Avatar State and all. She glared down at me, then drew her arm back and up, her fist catching fire. I gasped and my tears fell faster as she threw the blow, flames bursting toward me. I felt my heart shrivel and wilt. _I have lost her... she turned on me, just like Dad did..._

Suddenly, a huge mass of earth slammed into her and knocked her out of view, her flames fizzling a few inches from my face. I hadn't even tried to avoid them. I realized my whole body was shaking, and it felt like I couldn't get enough air. The dome I was in exploded and my hair whipped everywhere as powerful wind swept in. I curled into the fetal position to avoid being crushed by falling rock. Arms wrapped around behind my back and my knees, and before I knew it I was in the air, jetting away from the huge tree.

As we left the trees and flew out over the sea, I slowly uncurled and looked back to the island, then up to the face of the woman carrying me. Korra, in the Avatar State, but different than the one who attacked me. That one had her old look, the her I remembered back when I was alone. This was the real her, the one who loved me. I started breathing again, but only got through one breath before I threw my arms around her neck and sobbed into her shoulder. We landed somewhere eventually, but even then I couldn't stop sobbing, and I didn't let go. She didn't let go either.


	9. Sinking and Floating

I felt Korra's breath against my ear. "Asami?" I realized how quiet it had been, nearly silent apart from my crying. The tightness in my chest loosened almost instantly. Her voice was so soft and caring. I felt like I hadn't heard it in ages. "Asami, I'm really sorry, but I need your help." My breathing started to slow. My help? _My_ help? "I'm gonna get us out of this, but I don't know where I'm going. Do you have any ideas?"

 _Did she get turned around in the airship?_ I took a few deep breaths as I sat back in her arms and looked up into her incredibly blue eyes. She looked worried, almost scared. I pulled her into a hug, a real one, just for a second before I took a look around. I had no idea where we were, until I spotted the middle island's big tree sticking up above the rest. And there, past it, was the small island I had swam to the night before. We were on the big island. I turned to tell Korra which way it was to the capital, but my throat was raw from crying and my voice caught. I coughed and it hurt, so I pointed off to the northwest instead.

She nodded to me and set her jaw. "Got it." She pulled me in tight again as she jogged to the shore and waterbent us out across the ocean. I held on to her tight, like she might disappear. Or like I might.

I wasn't really sure what I was feeling. I was so happy to see her again, to know she was okay, even well enough to carry me out of danger. But underneath that relief was so much pain. There was anger at my dad for what he did to our family all those years ago, and grief for his death too. Anger for his choice to give me a city instead of a father; grief for when the world almost lost Korra and I almost lost my world.

Then there was the fear. Fear that I would lose her. I didn't want to live without her again. I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to help her, that she needed more than me, that she would decide there was no reason to keep me around. I was so scared that she would turn her back on me... maybe not the same way my father did, but coming from her, it would hurt just as much or more. I had come face to face with that fear and it hadn't even been a dream. Of course, the others weren't really dreams either. They were real too, even if they didn't almost burn me to a crisp a few minutes ago.

And there was one more thing. My happiness at being with Korra again numbed the pain and fear, but I felt this one fully. I couldn't fight it because it came from myself. I felt useless. Helpless, even. I hadn't been able to do anything for Korra, nothing at all. _She_ even had to come to _my_ rescue because I tried so hard to help and failed. She had always ended up having to find her way through things on her own. Amon, Unalaq, Kuvira, the Red Lotus _twice_ now... it certainly hadn't always gone well for her, but so far, she had always managed to find a way. But some day she might not, and if that happened, my heart told me I would be no help. Even if she didn't leave me behind, that would be when I would lose her. I buried my face further into her shoulder.

 _At least I could do a little bit this time_ , I thought derisively. _I can't stop people who want to kill her, but I can remember which direction we came from._ Still, hearing her voice had pushed the memories away at least a little bit. She was here, and she was holding me, and that was more important than things that had already happened. Even if I couldn't help her, she was still here, and she was still strong and determined and beautiful and caring, and she was still mine. I hated being so useless, but I was still here, and she still held me while I cried, and she still carried me across the ocean like it was most important thing she had ever done.

The sound of the ocean rushing through her bending made it hard to hold on to my thoughts, and eventually it drowned them out. The pain faded with the memories, but it didn't help me feel less pathetic. I hugged Korra tight and watched over her shoulder as the islands blurred in the distance. I thought I saw something speed away over the water, but it could have been a trick of the light on the waves. I breathed deeply and waited for the silent tears to stop.

* * *

Eventually, I started to recognize where we were. I adjusted course to head straight to the Fire Nation Capital. It took a while, but we made it. Asami didn't say anything the whole time. She didn't even move, just held on to me. She wasn't sobbing, though. That made me feel a little better.

I bent us up and onto the docks in the capital's port. A bunch of people looked our way, but I ignored them and they had enough sense to leave us alone. Asami still didn't move or say anything. I would have thought she fell asleep, but her arms were still tense around my neck. I carried her through town and up toward the palace. More heads turned on the way, and a few people tried to ask me what was going on, but I didn't stop.

I used my metalbending to open the palace door and one of the staff immediately recognized me and rushed off. Another made his way over to us.

"Avatar Korra! Thank goodness, we were so worried!"

"You were? Sorry, I can't really remember the last few days. Was I here before this whole mess?"

"Yeah." She'd been still for so long, Asami surprised me when she spoke up. She sounded exhausted, but more than that. Like she was empty. "We came here yesterday after the Fire Lord was attacked. You were trying to heal her when the Red Lotus ambushed us. I tried to fight them off, but they took you. I caught their airship and was going to help you escape, but you had it taken care of. I followed you to the islands after you got away."

I squeezed her a little tighter, then nodded to the staff member. "It's been a rough day. We could really use some rest. Is there a spare room?"

He nodded back and started to lead the way. "I believe Lord Zuko will wish to speak with you. Is that agreeable?" He sounded nervous. Probably didn't want to get between Lord Zuko and The Avatar.

"Yeah, that's fine." I turned my head and whispered to Asami, "I'll get Zuko to fill me in, and I'm sure he can give us some down time. I'm gonna drop you off at the room, so try to relax, okay? I'll keep it short and be back soon." She nodded.

When we got to the room, I set Asami down on the bed. My arms felt weird after carrying her so long, like they'd gotten stiff in that position. She sat there with her hands in her lap, staring at the floor. It worried me. "Hey." No response. I put a hand on her shoulder and knelt down to her level. She moved her eyes up to meet mine. "We'll talk about it, okay? If you want to." She looked back down. She just sat there for a minute, but then she nodded again. "Okay. Thank you." I wrapped her in a hug and kissed the top of her head. "I love you. Be right back."

The attendant was still waiting at the door when I turned around, and I followed him down a floor to a meeting room. "Your return has already been announced, so I'm sure Lord Zuko will be with you shortly."

"Thanks." He bowed before leaving and I looked around the room. Just a big table and a bunch of chairs. I didn't want to sit, so I leaned against the wall. Thoughts about what happened on the island drifted through my head, so I tried to focus on my breathing to keep them away. It was only a couple of minutes before the door opened again. Zuko shut it behind him.

It didn't take him long to fill me in about Izumi and the Red Lotus. Things came back to me as he talked about them. I told him about my escape from the airship and finding Asami on the island. I left out the part about Dark Korra. He looked surprised when I mentioned the split spirit, but said it would have re-combined by then. He assured me that they'd redoubled the already-doubled guard detail after the second attack, and that they had someone posted every thirty feet around the palace. Izumi was alive, but healers were worried she could be paralyzed after all the lightning, and there had been almost no progress on her recovery. I promised I'd try to help her again the next day, but Asami and I needed to rest first. He understood and went back to tend to his daughter as I made my way back to Asami.

She was exactly where I left her, still staring at the floor and everything. She didn't even look up when I opened the door. I closed it and sat on the floor in front of her. "Sami... what happened out there? I haven't seen you like this since... since we got together." Since her father. The days between the fight and the wedding were hard.

She refocused on me and her eyes started to water. "Korra... I'm so glad you're safe, and I'm so sorry..."

"Sorry? For what?"

"Sorry that you always have to carry all of the weight! Sorry that I couldn't protect you when you needed me to. Sorry that you had to _save_ me after _you_ were the one who was struck by lightning last night! You needed me, and I was useless, like always."

"Asami, stop!" I sat up and took her hand in mine. "That's ridiculous. I wouldn't have made it back here without you. And what do you mean, 'like always'? We never would have taken down Kuvira's giant without _your_ hummingbird suits. You've never been useless."

"What about when you fought Amon, or Unalaq, or Zaheer?" She pulled her hand out of mine. "I couldn't do anything."

"You destroyed all those equalist machines. You saved my dad. You saved Tenzin and the airbenders!"

She scoffed. "General Iroh took out the airplanes. And anyone could have flown Oogi, there was just nothing else I was even capable of. Bolin's the one who got us out of the Air Temple, and Kai led everyone to the other airbenders."

I put a hand on her knee."Just because other people did things too doesn't mean what you did is worthless. And what about..." I took a deep breath to steady myself. "What about when I was poisoned? You're the one who took care of me."

She almost laughed at that. "For a couple of weeks. You were gone for three years! And all I could do for you was sit and wait. Write you letters you couldn't respond to... I was a wreck while you were gone. I threw myself into my work, but whenever I had a quiet moment, I'd find myself crying, or drinking, or both. I know you needed that time and I know it's not my fault. I don't blame you for any of it, but it still eats at me. You needed help and I was useless. You're the most important person in the world to me, but you're the one person that I can't help at all!"

"You... you really feel like that? All this time?" She nodded. "Asami, I..."

"Something attacked me on that island." Her shoulders slouched and she hung her head. "I think it might have been a dark spirit. It went through my chest and I passed out. I dreamed I was back there again. When my father was killed and Kuvira's giant blew up with you inside. When you were gone and nobody heard from you for so long and I worried you might not come back. When Zaheer poisoned you and I thought I had lost you. I feel so useless, Korra. And I almost feel ridiculous for even thinking I could be useful! You're the _Avatar_ , and I'm just some girl with a glove. What could I possibly do for you?"

The silence built for a minute before I found the words. "You could keep me grounded. Help me focus. Tell me when I'm being hot headed. Remind me that I'm not just the Avatar, but that I'm human too. Have fun with me, make me laugh. Love me for me. Maybe you can't do much for the Avatar, Asami, but you do a _ton_ for Korra. You're the most important person in the world to me, too, and I wouldn't be who I am or where I am without you."

She looked up to meet my eyes as her tears finally fell again. She dropped from the bed to the floor and threw her arms around my neck, and I held her close again. "I'm sorry," she said. "I'm being stupid. Like my existence has to have some utilitarian purpose or I'm not worth having around. Like just being me and doing what I can isn't enough. Stupid."

"You, stupid? What does that make me?"

I felt her smile despite the tears. "Stupid too for dating me."

"Well, I guess we'll just have to be stupid together, then." That got a little bit of a laugh out of her. "Come on. You need some rest." I helped her stand up and we both got ready for bed. It wasn't quite sundown, but we settled in anyway, Asami's head on my shoulder.

"Korra?"

"Hmm?"

"Thank you. For talking me back up. Being important to you is really important to me. Sometimes I wish I could bend so I could help more."

"I like you just the way you are."

"I'm glad." She fell asleep after only a few minutes. It was good to see her so peaceful.

* * *

I woke up in the middle of the night and found myself alone in the bed. "Korra?" She was never up this early unless she had to be. I was still half-asleep, but I forced myself to get up and look for her. I couldn't find her at first, and I started to worry, but then I found a staircase to the roof. She was sitting up there, watching the stars.

Or that's what I thought she was doing, but her head was down, her chin resting on her knees. "Korra?" She jumped at the sound of my voice. She shoved one hand into her pocket and rubbed at her eyes with the back of the other. "Is everything okay?"

She tried to sit up straighter and look nonchalant. It didn't work. "Huh? Yeah, yeah I'm fine. Just, uh, looking at the stars. What are you doing up?"

I sat down beside her. "You're a terrible liar. What are _you_ doing up?"

She sighed and hugged her knees. "I couldn't sleep."

"Nightmares again? You know you can always wake me up, I promise I don't mind."

She shook her head. "I didn't even make it that far. I laid there for a couple hours after you fell asleep, but I couldn't. I'm… I'm too scared to sleep. I know I'll have one of the nightmares if I do. I'm sure I'm gonna start having them more often."

"Why?"

She sighed again. "Because I'm broken again, Asami. I'm messed up and I don't know if I'll ever be okay. I'm scared that I'm only going to get worse again. You could have somebody who's whole, someone who doesn't have the same nightmares over and over, someone who doesn't have hallucinations haunting them. You'd be better off with someone who's not me. I can't escape this. I don't want you to go down with me."

"Korra…" It hurt to hear her talk about herself like that. She was so strong and selfless and incredible that sometimes I forgot that she worried about not being good enough. I put a hand on her arm. "I know you don't. But I'm always going to choose to. There's no way in the world I'm abandoning you. If you're going down, I'm following you down and trying to pull you back up. Life probably would be easier dating someone who wasn't the Avatar. But I don't want someone else. I want _you_ , Korra. You're the most important person in the world to me, remember?" She didn't show any sign that I had changed her mind, but she didn't argue back either. It was silent between us for a minute before I tried to find out what was really going on. "What do you mean you're broken? What hallucinations are you talking about?"

Another sigh and a long pause. I waited for her. "I haven't told this to anyone. When I was on my own, after I wrote you that letter, I swear I was going crazy. I had these hallucinations of myself in the Avatar State. I tried to avoid her, but she kept showing up everywhere. She terrified me. She would just stare at me, and she looked so angry. She even attacked me a couple times. I finally stopped seeing her after I confronted Zaheer and he helped me into the spirit world. I haven't seen her in years. I thought I was all better, that I wasn't crazy anymore."

"You thought?"

Tears pushed at the corners of her eyes. She talked into her knees, almost whispering. "I saw her again yesterday, on the island. I don't know why, but she's back. I tried to fight her, but I couldn't do anything. She's why I was so desperate to get moving after I had you. I didn't know what you'd been through, but I haven't seen you cry like that in a long time, maybe ever. I felt terrible asking you to help when you were so torn up, but I was so scared. I still am." Her voice broke and her arms shook. "I'm terrified, Asami! There must be something really wrong with me if I'm still hallucinating after all this time. I thought I was better, but I'm not. I'm crazy and broken and I might be like this forever. I can't do this, Asami." I would have felt better if she'd screamed it all. That would have felt more like her. Being quiet like that, she reminded me of when she was in that wheelchair.

I wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her in close. For a long minute, she just cried and I didn't know what to say. Then something clicked. "She attacked me."

Korra sniffed and turned to look at me for the first time since I had sat down. "What?"

"She attacked me. On the island. She wears your old clothes, the ones you were wearing when you fought Zaheer. And she still has that chain on her arm."

"How did you know?"

"I saw her. When I first woke up, before you saved me. She broke open the dome and almost burned me, but you knocked her away."

"Yeah... you, you saw her?" I nodded. "There was a spirit back when I was seeing her before, the little one with the leaf ears, remember him from the spirit world? He saw her too. I thought I might not be crazy then, but then when she showed up at Zaofu… I had to have been seeing things then. But if that spirit and you both saw her, then those times couldn't have been all in my mind. Maybe I really haven't hallucinated her in a long time. Maybe I really am better. There's no way we'd both hallucinate the same thing at the same time in the same spot, right?" She sounded somewhere between hopeful and desperate.

"I don't think so. That's too big of a coincidence."

"Then I'm not going crazy! I'm okay!" She wiped her tears and I felt her relief wash over me too. "That just means..." The smile she'd had for a few short seconds disappeared and fear took its place. "That means... that she's real. And I couldn't do anything to her. I could barely even slow her down, even in the Avatar State." She fell silent while we both tried to grasp that. "What is she?"

My mind was racing, but I managed to break out of my thoughts. I had to say something. "I don't know. But we'll figure it out. We haven't faced anything yet that Team Avatar couldn't beat together. We've taken down bloodbenders, platinum giants with weapons of mass destruction, and the spirit of darkness and chaos himself. We can beat this too. I'll be right beside you." I was nowhere near as confident as I sounded, but I couldn't let Korra fall apart again. She needed optimism right now.

Fortunately, it worked. She took a couple of deep breaths before meeting my eyes again. "Yeah. Everything has a weakness. And there has to be some reason she stopped showing up for all that time. We just have to figure out why."

"That's the spirit. And Korra?" I pulled her into a side-hug and kissed the top of her head, like she'd done to me earlier. "Even if you were hallucinating again, you wouldn't be broken. You'd just have a problem. You may be the Avatar, but you're still human. You're allowed to have problems. And I'm always going to be there to help you deal with them. Because I want to. I'll always want to. I promise."

She relaxed in my arms and leaned into my shoulder. "Thanks, Asami."

"Any time. Think you can get some sleep now? Or still worried about the nightmares?"

"A little bit, but not like I was. I think I can sleep. Just... stay with me?"

"Of course. Let's get back to bed." I was used to falling asleep in her arms, but that night, she fell asleep in mine.


	10. A Spark

I woke up a couple hours after sunrise. I still had like three different worries in the back of my mind: Asami, Dark Korra, and Izumi, but I felt better than I did the night before. I rolled over hoping to snuggle with Asami for a few minutes before I got up, but she wasn't there. That was disappointing, but I wasn't really surprised. When we slept together, she almost always woke up before me. I usually found her primping in the bathroom or making breakfast or something. I groaned into my pillow, then rolled out of bed to go find her.

She wasn't in the bathroom that was connected to the guest room we'd slept in. Her pajamas were there though, she must have already gotten ready for the day. I took a minute to brush my teeth and get dressed before heading out into the rest of the palace. I wandered for a few minutes before I found a staff member to direct me to the kitchens. Hopefully Asami hadn't insisted on cooking breakfast herself, she wasn't a bad cook, but she'd have to be crazy to turn down professional chefs. Also, she _was_ kind of a bad cook. She'd always had people cooking for her, so she'd only started learning when she started staying over at my place. She was pretty good at what she knew how to make, but she didn't know how to make much.

The chefs told me they hadn't seen her though. I wasn't sure what else she could have been doing. Maybe checking the palace out? I thought she'd want to do that with me, though. A bunch of other ideas popped up. Yoga? Up on the roof where she found me? Went to check on Izumi? Just ran out to get something and was already back at the room? My Asami worry crept to the front. I grabbed a roll and started heading back toward our room.

As I made my way up a set of stairs, someone called me back down. "Avatar Korra! We've been looking for you!" I stopped and turned back to the attendant on the floor below. "The Fire Lord's condition has started slipping. A team of healers is working to keep her stable, but Lord Zuko is adamant that she requires your assistance at once!"

The Izumi worry took over. I nodded and leaped back down the stairs, cushioning my landing with airbending. "Take me to her." I followed him to what felt like the opposite end of the palace and down another floor before he stopped at the door to an interior room. I guessed they wanted to avoid windows after the last attack. I stepped inside and found seven people huddled around the examination table that Izumi was on: four waterbenders, two firebenders, and Lord Zuko. "What's her status?"

One of the waterbenders spoke up first. "Her heart rate's become erratic."

"And her energy's started to fade. What she has left is concentrating near her center," a firebender added.

"Everybody needed to keep her going right now, keep doing what you're doing. Everybody else, give me some space to work." I stepped up next to the table as the other benders shifted around and to the sides of the room. Zuko took a step back, but didn't let go of his daughter's hand.

I centered my energy and reached out to Raava again. Energy flowed into my limbs and my eyes lit up as I took hold of the elements, trying to feel Izumi's energy through them. I was prepared to try to bend her energy directly if I needed to, but doing that could be dangerous to both of us, especially if I wasn't positive that what I was doing would heal her. The firebender was right though, her energy was seriously fading. The only really active area was in her stomach. I focused my energy there and started examining her spirit more closely.

The first thing I noticed was how out of balance her fire chakra was. Its core seemed to be holding up okay, but its energy was completely chaotic. I dug in a little deeper and quickly found out why. I knew that the stomach was where most of a person's chi rested, but her chi wasn't at rest at all. There was so much negative energy there, it was almost ripping itself apart without enough positive energy to balance it.

I pulled up some extra water from the basin below the table and formed a helix around us. As I began trying to purify the spiritual energy in her chakra through the waterbending, I monitored my connection to her closely. Light flowed up the streams of water, but it didn't seem to be having any major effect on her chi. I shifted my focus back to the physical world and saw the same light making its way up her body. I immediately let the bending drop. Purifying her entire spirit would throw her just as out of balance as she already was, just in the opposite direction. She might not survive that either. Apparently that waterbending technique wasn't precise enough. I was going to have to try the only other way I knew to fix her energy imbalance.

The Avatar State faded and I looked up to Lord Zuko. I noticed that everyone else was staring at me and had taken an additional step or two back. Zuko's face fell. "It… didn't work."

"No. The technique I learned from my uncle can't focus as tightly as I need it to. There's a lot of negative energy stuck in her fire chakra and it's stopping the rest of her energy from flowing."

"I was afraid so. To redirect lightning, it's crucial to channel the energy through the stomach to give it a strong chi base and help it avoid the heart. She must have held the energy there too long and couldn't direct all of it out."

"But I think I know another way. With Raava's help, I can bend spiritual energy directly, sort of like what Avatar Aang did to your father. If I can connect with her chakra, I can bend the excess energy out and she should stabilize. I'm willing to try it, but it's dangerous. If her spirit resists while she's unconscious, it would turn into a battle of willpower. I know I'm stubborn, but this is her fire chakra we're talking about, it's all about willpower." I didn't mention that I'd also been dealing with quite a bit of shame just the night before. "If I'm not strong enough, it could tear her up even more, or I could lose control of the energy. Anything could happen at that point. What do you think?"

Zuko put his hand to his chin and closed his eyes. He knew Aang, so he knew that this was dangerous for me too, not just Izumi. After a long moment, he sighed and opened his eyes. "I can't think of another way to remove the energy. Another lightning strike might force it through, but it could just as easily add more to the block, or cause other damage. And if her energy doesn't start flowing again soon, she won't be with us long. Choosing to not have you try is choosing to watch my daughter die. I couldn't ask you to risk yourself, but if you're willing to, it would mean the world to me."

"Okay. Let's do this." I pulled on Raava's energy again and put my hand on Izumi's stomach. I could feel her spirit and I could see the pools of energy inside, her chakras. They were all so dim, except for the one in her stomach. It was swirling and pulsing like a storm. I reached out with my spirit and touched hers, but she didn't respond. Raava's light surged through me and I tapped into our chi as I started to bend Izumi's energy.

That was when I finally got a response. Her spirit lashed out and locked onto mine, and I felt it pushing against me, trying to force me out. It caught me off guard and I faltered, but I caught myself and pushed back. I dug in harder, trying to get a more complete connection to her spirit. Her will was incredible. She was fighting to survive and as far as she knew, I was a threat to that. I lost ground bit by bit until her spirit started pushing into mine instead. I tried to focus on the fact that I was here to save her life, that if I lost my spirit could be ripped apart, anything to strengthen my will. But she was still winning.

This wasn't going to work. She was running off of instinct, rational thought wasn't going to beat it. I could still back out now and be safe, but Izumi would be lost. Then I got an idea. I wasn't sure I'd be able to back out if I tried it. It was a terrible idea, but it felt right. I took a deep breath to steady myself, pushed back one last time, then opened my spirit wide.

Izumi's immediately came darting in, pushing straight for my core. I was hoping she'd stop when she didn't meet resistance, that I could connect with her in peace instead of fighting for control, but her spirit barreled ahead like a train. I was terrified now. I started to pull back, hoping I could still duck out and escape. But then she stopped. Her spirit reached out, not to push against mine, but to feel it. Being immersed in my spirit like that, she felt Raava's light. She connected with my spirit and slowly pulled back, back into herself, and took me with her. I found myself surrounded by the energy in her chakra. She was helping me.

I reached out and focused on my bending. The energy flowed into my spirit, and I watched as her chi slowly returned to normal. I'd never taken energy from someone else before. It felt like it was made of all the elements: grasping it took the precision of metalbending, but it flowed like water, was hot and alive like fire, but also felt like an extension of myself, which was the only real way to bend air. I felt it flow through my own chakras, and when the last of it was pulled from Izumi, I disconnected from her spirit and returned to the physical world.

I felt a surge of energy flowing through my hand from Izumi's body. It made my whole body feel electric, and it connected to the energy spread through every corner of me. I concentrated my chi and the energy followed it, shifting through my limbs as I directed it out my other arm. A small bolt of lightning shot out of my fingertips and into the wall, leaving a large scorch mark but no other damage. The glow in my eyes faded and I let my arms fall to my sides.

My heart was racing as I grinned. "That should do it," I told the healers and Zuko. "Her chakra's all cleared up. It'll still take her a while to build her energy back up, and it won't help whatever physical damage the lightning did to her, but she should be able to pull through and start recovering now."

I suddenly found myself in a tight hug from Zuko. I hugged him back. "Thank you so much, Avatar Korra. You've saved my daughter's life. The Fire Nation is in your debt."

I pulled back from the hug and smirked at the old master. "Just glad I could help." He bowed to me and I returned it before heading for the door. The healers needed to work and I need to... right! I turned back as the worries in my head switched places again. "Hey, real quick, have any of you seen Asami? She wasn't in the room when I woke up, and the chefs hadn't seen her."

"No, I'm sorry, we've all been attending to Izumi since early this morning. Surely she can't have gone far."

"Does the palace have a gym? Or a training room? That's my next guess."

"In the basement. Take the stairs at the end of the hall, it'll be the first on your left."

"Thanks."

I followed his directions down and found the training room easily enough. I pulled the door open to a room full of mats and training dummies, even a couple of firebenders sparring, but no Asami. I wondered if I'd missed her while I was working on Izumi. I made my way back up to our room, asking every staff member I passed on the way if they'd seen her, but none of them had. How could nobody have even seen her? The Asami worry was growing.

She wasn't in the room when I got there, and nothing had even been moved so I knew she hadn't come back to it and left again. She wasn't on the roof either. I was running out of ideas. I finally ran into a guard who said he'd seen her in workout clothes with a towel over her shoulder headed down to the basement early this morning, but hadn't seen her since. I headed back down there as fast as I could and interrupted the firebenders who were training.

"Excuse me, I'm looking for someone. Did either of you two see a woman in here earlier? A little taller than me, long black hair, green eyes?"

"Yeah, she was in here pretty early doing some yoga when I came down for my morning weightlifting," the shorter of the two said. "She was only here for like 15 minutes after I got here though. A guy came in and interrupted her, gave her some kind of message all hush-hush, and they ducked outta here pretty quick."

This was starting to get pretty suspicious. "Who was the messenger? What did he look like?"

"I think he's on the Fire Lord's advisory board. Tall guy, forties, real buff. He's in here dang near every day, but I never asked him his name. Has a pretty distinctive mustache though, connects straight to his sideburns but he keeps his beard shaved."

"Thanks. If you see her again, could you tell her the Avatar's looking for her?"

"Yeah, sure thing."

I headed for the exit and heard the taller guy whisper, " _The_ Avatar? Was that her?" As I got closer to the door, I metalbent the handle and pushed it open with airbending, just to give them something more to talk about. Then I ran up the stairs. I had to find Zuko again and figure out who this mustache guy was. Maybe he'd have some idea why the advisory board would want Asami.

I didn't even make it to the second floor before another staff member stopped me. "Avatar Korra! There's a radio for you!"

"What do you mean it's for me? Nobody's even supposed to know I'm here. You told them I wasn't here, right?"

"I tried, but the caller insisted that they knew you were. They said that one 'Asami Sato' needed to speak with you immediately."

I wasn't sure whether to feel relieved or panicked. After the previous day, panic was the default. "Take me to the radio."


	11. While You Were Sleeping

Korra was still asleep when I woke up. She had gotten a lot less sleep than me, and I woke up before her more often than not anyway, so it wasn't too surprising. I gently pulled my arm out from underneath her and sat up. The sun was up and peeking through the window of our room, though it hadn't been up long. It was nice to have a reminder that the previous day was over.

I sat there just looking at her for a while. I always liked seeing her so peaceful. Seeing her happy was my favorite, but I got to see that quite a bit when we were together. It just seemed like she always had something to be upset or worried about, so even when she was happy, she never really looked calm. Meditating was about the only other time she got close, but a lot of the time she looked focused and concerned then too. The look on her face while she slept always made me feel like everything was okay. If Korra was at peace, it had to be because the world was too.

I rummaged in my bag for fresh clothing, but everything was still damp. I hadn't thought to empty it after my swim, and the rain hadn't helped. I didn't want to just leave wet clothes all over the room to air dry, though. I decided I would have to see about drying them in the palace's facilities. I dug in Korra's bag instead, which had been left behind at the palace when she was kidnapped, and pulled out one of her white sleeveless tops and a pair of blue sweatpants. Her clothes were always a little loose and a little short on me, but they were better than shivering in wet things, and they would do until mine were dry. I knew she wouldn't mind.

As I went through my morning routine, my thoughts turned to Izumi's situation. How did the Red Lotus know she would be headed to a meeting at that time? Were they just waiting in the courtyard and got lucky? That seemed unlikely. And why did they wait so long for the second attack? They could have gone after Izumi far earlier, before the Avatar showed up. Unless they were after Korra specifically by then. But then how did they know she was here, let alone which room she was in? Even if they had seen us getting off the boat and recognized us, they would have had barely an hour of preparation time to re-infiltrate the palace, find which room we were in, and set up a strike from multiple angles. They had to have some kind of inside information.

As I came out of the bathroom, I checked on Korra. She was still sound asleep, and with no nightmares, so I wasn't about to wake her. I put my hair up, then grabbed a small towel from the bathroom and my glove from my bag before slipping out into the hallway. I could get my morning yoga finished early (and without her distracting me) and then I could stick with Korra the rest of the day. I was sure she would have things that needed doing.

I wanted to wait to have breakfast with her, so I headed straight for the basement where I knew there was a training room. When I was sixteen, I went on a few business trips with my father to the Fire Nation when he was looking to set up a deal to improve the quality of the materials Future Industries used. He was invited to stay at the palace for one of the trips, something about the royal family considering becoming direct clients (though that never worked out). I had visited the gym every day while I was there because I refused to miss my training.

The room was just like I remembered it, though they had upgraded some of their equipment that I didn't plan on using. Though there was no one there, I left the larger open area at the other end of the gym free in case anyone came looking to spar and took up a spot in the smaller space near the front corner. Sure enough, I was barely ten minutes in when a couple of women entered for a light sparring match. Other people trickled in and out as I progressed through my poses, mostly weightlifters who left me undisturbed.

I got about three quarters of the way through my routine before someone interrupted me during my upward lotus pose. He entered my field of vision and asked, "Excuse me, Asami Sato?" His shoulders were exceptionally broad, and he had a graying mustache reminiscent of how my father used to wear his, except it met his sideburns instead of turning down to his jaw.

"Yes? Can I help you?" I uncurled from my pose and sat up proper. He knelt down and spoke quietly.

"I'm one of the Fire Lord's advisors. I'm afraid her condition is deteriorating rapidly. We've just woken Avatar Korra. She's on her way to our healing room as we speak, but she asked me to find you so you could be present as well. I can take you there if you're ready."

I stood up and wiped away some sweat with the towel I brought, then checked that my glove was still securely in my waistband. Sure that I was ready, I nodded to him. "Lead the way."

I followed him across the palace complex as we stayed on the underground level. It made sense that they had moved her down there, any of the attackers we had encountered so far would have to actually make it to the room before they could strike, and they wouldn't be able to track the Fire Lord through windows. Eventually, he stopped outside of an unmarked and unremarkable door near the center of what appeared to be an otherwise unused hallway. He gestured for me to go in and I turned the handle. As I started to open the door, I immediately noticed that it was dark inside, and I heard the footfall of him stepping behind me.

I ducked and twisted to my left as I felt the punch he had thrown sail through my ponytail. Halfway through the motion, I threw my own left fist at his gut. I knew it wouldn't stop him, but I hoped it would buy me a moment to pull my glove on. He avoided it with a sidestep not unlike my own and swung his missed punch down, trying to connect with my back. I stepped away and barely managed to turn fast enough to get my leg out of the way.

He was on me against instantly, and I was on my back foot. Blow after blow I dodged or blocked, but I didn't want to risk retaliating unless I had an opening. He was bigger, stronger, and heavier than me, so trading blows would work in his favor. I just needed enough of an opening to throw him off, then I could get my glove on, and then he wouldn't stand a chance. If I could even lay a hand on him after that, it would be over.

I found my opening when he threw a haymaker from a wide stance. I ducked it and slid between his legs, then leaped up to knock him off balance from behind. But I miscalculated. He predicted my move and lunged backwards into my attack. We both stumbled backward, and he recovered just as quickly as I did. But I was still behind him, and the move had created a little bit of space between us, so I grabbed for my glove as quickly as I could. Just as my hand closed around it, he kicked back and a jet of flame shot toward my face. _Of course he's a firebender_ , I cursed at myself for not expecting that.

I bent over backwards to avoid it and then dropped into a crouch, glove in hand, but I didn't have time to pull it on as I slipped away from another half-dozen blows. He wasn't bending, though. Why not? I deflected a punch and lifted my leg for a kick, only for him to match my movement and meet my leg with his. Instead of pressing into the kick, I hooked my foot and swept sideways, causing his body to turn and wrench his planted leg, and he reached to the wall to stabilize. That was all the time I needed to pull my glove on.

He took a step back, trying to keep a greater range since he couldn't afford to even let me block a blow any more. He had a fire in his eyes, and he wasn't afraid to bend the element now either, but I had been sparring with Korra for years. I could read her element attacks by her stances and movements, and it was even easier against someone constrained to a single discipline. I avoided his flames easily and closed distance on him as he recoiled. He drew back one last punch and I aimed my glove to meet his fist.

But my glove never found its mark. His fist pulled up short, and there was nothing for me to shock. Instead, his other hand shot up and grabbed my gloved wrist. I had gotten careless. He pulled me past him and twisted my arm around behind my back, forcing me to bend forward. I felt his other arm encircle my neck from behind, and he squeezed my windpipe shut. I gasped and sputtered, tried to kick and punch him off, or to pry his arm from my throat, but he was too strong and had me pinned.

"You're pretty good," he said into my ear as blackness crept in around the edges of my vision. He almost sounded impressed. My face felt numb. I saw flashes of Korra: smiling up from my lap on the boat, in the Avatar state as she blasted fire down at me, still in the Avatar state as she carried me away on a column of water, crying on the rooftop in the dark. That dark scene grew darker until all I could see was black as the darkness swallowed me.


	12. Cornered

" _Asami?_ "

My head felt like it was full of static. _Korra?_

"I'm afraid she's a little _tied up_ at the moment. I think she'd be rather quiet for now even if she weren't. I'm sure she'd love to see you, though."

" _I swear, if you do anything to her-_ "

My eyes fluttered open. I was on a boat, my hands and feet bound in shackles with a heavy chain linking them to a pole that supported the rear bench seat. I recognized the ship as one of Future Industries' smaller vessels; I wasn't going to be out muscling the craftsmanship. The sun was high in the sky, it must have been hours since I fought that guy. Since he'd beaten me. He was at the other end of the boat, in the driver's seat, speaking into the boat's portable radio.

"She's fine, for now. And she'll stay that way if you cooperate."

I tried to cry out to Korra, tell her not to do it, that it was a trap, but I could hardly make anything above a whisper after the choking.

" _What do you want_?"

"I want you to make an excuse to the palace staff. A reason to leave, alone. Then I want you to take the boat you came on and come to me. Turn yourself over without a fight, and Asami will walk out of this unharmed."

" _I've struck a deal with the Red Lotus before, and I'm not exactly jumping at the chance to do it again. How do I know you'll keep your word?_ "

"We have no issue with the non-bender. She'll be present for the entire exchange. She's here right now, in fact." He turned to look at me.

She paused at that, and when she spoke again she sounded more confident. " _How do I know you even have her? You could just be bluffing. She could have escaped from you._ "

"Very well." He brought the radio receiver over to me and held it down near my face on the floor. I kept my mouth shut tight and glared up at him. "I honestly don't want to hurt you. Please don't make me force a sound out of you." I didn't blink and I didn't speak. He sighed as flames curled around his hand and he reached to grab my face. I shut my eyes and recoiled the little bit that I could, but the heat on my skin got more and more intense.

"Stop! Don't..." I breathed. I knew I would have ended up crying out in pain if he had burned my face, even if it would have been quiet, so I gave in. I hated myself for it.

" _Asami!_ "

"Korra, don't-" was all I managed to wheeze before he pulled the receiver away. I still couldn't get enough volume to be heard at a distance.

"If you're satisfied, then do we have a bargain?"

There was a long pause on the other end. I knew she must be thinking back to what happened after the last time she turned herself over to the Red Lotus. It had taken her years to recover physically, and she was still dealing with the echoes of it in her mind. " _Fine. I'll do it._ " My heart sank. " _Where?_ "

"On the southern side of the island of Shu Jing, there's a small cove around a river's mouth. Follow the river up to the second waterfall that feeds it. Shore your boat across from the waterfall. Come alone. If anyone from the capital follows you, we'll know."

The only response he got was the sound of a radio receiver being slammed down.

* * *

It was almost sundown by the time we made it to our destination, a small man-made cave behind a waterfall. An awning extended to divert the water as the boat pulled up, and my captor steered the boat into a smaller cave below the entrance where he docked. By then, my voice was starting to work again. "You know she'll just break out again! She's escaped from the Red Lotus three times already, what makes you think this will be any different?"

He pulled me out of the boat and pushed me towards a set of stone stairs leading up to the main cave. An associate of his retracted the awning, then took the chain that was connecting my wrists to my ankles. The guy I fought pushed me along, one hand between my shoulder blades and the other holding a flame to light the darkness. "Yes, that third time was unfortunate. Even among lightning benders, it seems that competent initiates are still few and far between. But no matter. She won't have the chance this time."

I wanted to take him down myself, but I barely had an upper hand when we were on even footing. I knew I couldn't do anything while I was chained up. "And why's that? That's what Zaheer thought too, with his platinum chains and his metal poison. Who are you to think you've got something better? You've got nothing." I knew I wasn't going to scare them off of it, but maybe if I could rile him up, maybe he'd let something slip. Maybe he'd accidentally tell me something, something I could use against whatever they were planning.

The cave's main corridor was fairly long, and it ended in a moderately sized room. "I suppose it would be the polite thing to do to not leave you completely in the dark." He lit lamps around the room with firebending as his grunt switched the chain connecting my hands to my feet for one that was wrapped around one of the two platinum pillars in the room.

He passed my glove that he'd taken after our fight to his associate as he moved to stand in front of the pillar across from me. I tried to strike a balance between looking uninterested and glaring. "My name is Takuma. I became an initiate of the Red Lotus shortly after Zaheer and his friends. They were prodigious. Zaheer's dedication and zeal were unmatched, and his friends were equally peerless in their bending disciplines within their first few years. They were well known among the initiates, but mostly kept to themselves. I knew them little. Still, when their raid on the White Lotus compound-"

"You mean when they tried to _kidnap_ a **five-year-old**?"

"...Yes. When their attempt failed, the entire organization was shocked. We dispersed and went into hiding individually. We couldn't risk all being discovered if they cracked. So I continued my training and my efforts on my own. Being of Fire Nation descent and a relatively skilled firebender, I returned to this country. I decided that the easiest way to dismantle the government would be from the inside, so I infiltrated the royalty. Over time, I rose through the ranks. Eventually, the Fire Lord appointed me to her counsel of advisors. It was the perfect position to observe all of the system's inner workings and decide how to crush it."

"And then you decided to just shoot her with lightning instead."

"She was not as receptive to my persuasions as I had hoped. I carefully constructed all of my arguments, told her just what I thought she needed to hear to prepare her for my final suggestion. But when I presented it to her, she obstinately refused without a second thought. I thought I could remove this oppressive government from power peacefully, but she was too stubborn. So yes, eventually I decided that the best way forward would be to dispose of her and attempt to persuade her successor.

"It was shortly after she rebuked me when I learned of Zaheer's attempt to remove the Avatar five years ago." He kept calling her 'the Avatar'. 'Remove the Avatar', not 'murder a teenager whose sole goal is helping the entire world'. Not even 'remove Avatar Korra'. It was disgusting. "After his failure, I volunteered to head the Fire Nation's task force for hunting down Red Lotus members. It was an excellent cover, and it allowed me to protect my fellow Lotuses by throwing the trails off, as well as reconnect with them myself. As I studied Zaheer's methods for attempting to defeat the Avatar, I realized his mistake, and so I began working on a solution of my own. It has taken me the better part of four years to develop this skill and to learn to use it well, in no small part because it is extremely difficult to find someone to practice with, but it is ready. Which is why I chose now to make an attempt on the Fire Lord and draw the Avatar to me." He turned and took a few steps away toward a small table against one wall.

I could almost hear his eagerness to tell me the rest. He was definitely an egoist. I could work with that. I sat down and leaned against the pillar I was chained too, trying to seem nonchalant."Maybe you _think_ you're ready, but let's be serious for a minute. Korra ripped a hole in the fabric of reality a couple of years ago. You've got nothing."

He paused a moment, then turned around and walked back to stand in front of the pillar again. "Why don't I tell you about it and you can decide for yourself? Knowing won't help you now."

"By all means, regale me with your feeble plans."

He smirked. It was so similar to Korra's that it made my stomach turn. "Once the Avatar turns herself over and is secured," he patted the pillar behind him, "she won't have a chance to retaliate or escape. Zaheer's mistake was that he focused on the wrong target. He attacked the Avatar's body, but it was her spirit that he couldn't overcome. Raava is the only reason she was able to escape and survive the poison. Zaheer was no match for Raava's power. None of us are. She deserves better than to be confined to the body of a lowly human."

"She could have left during Harmonic Convergence. She chose to fuse with Korra again. And what difference does Zaheer's target make? Attacking the Avatar's spirit won't do any good. Korra can still use all of Raava's power, you'll never stop her. It doesn't matter what you do, Raava will always protect Korra. You've. Got. Nothing."

"My technique is far from nothing. You are familiar with the ability of skilled firebenders to separate the positive and negative energies within themselves to create lightning. Your firebender friend is capable of it, I'm aware that he killed Ming Hua with the skill. Are you also familiar with the uncommon skill of using firebending to observe and interact with a person's spirit?" I thought back to what Korra had described from when the Fire Sages helped her connect with Raava, and the flames on her hand when she tried to heal Izumi. I shrugged. "I possess both of these abilities. I have developed a technique that, with effort, allows me to utilize them simultaneously. To combine them."

He paused and my mind raced. An almost sadistic grin spread across his face when he saw realization on mine as I started to connect the dots. I felt panic start to set in. "Yes. It is a slow process, but one I am capable of. I will separate the light and dark energies within the Avatar's spirit. With her spirit split, she will be indisposed and unable to stop me. Raava would normally take control in such a situation, forcefully activating the Avatar state. But she'll be restrained in my grasp as well, unable to spread her influence through the Avatar's body. Eventually, the Avatar's spirit will no longer be able to bear the stress, and will be shredded. With no spirit to follow into a next life, Raava will return to the world, and Vaatu with her. They can finally resume their shared influence over our worlds that Avatar Wan foolishly interrupted eons ago. And the world can finally experience true balance again."

I felt sick. Rip her spirit apart? This guy was insane! "You won't even get to try it! As soon as she gets here, she'll crush you all!"

"I'm sure she would if you weren't here. Something tells me that she'll go willingly if it's the only way she can save something she cares about." I knew he was right. She'd already done it for the airbenders once.

Another member of the Red Lotus came jogging into the cavern. "Sir, I've just received word that the Avatar's boat has been sighted. She'll be arriving shortly."

"Excellent." He turned to his other henchman and gestured to me. "Gag her, then prepare the Avatar's chains. This historic day will be over soon."

* * *

It was officially night as I drove the boat ashore across from the waterfall where they'd told me and jumped out. I scanned the area, but didn't see any sign of anyone as the darkness slowly grew. The noise of the waterfall behind me suddenly changed and I turned around. An awning extended from a cave behind the waterfall, diverting the water to either side. Two Red Lotus members stood at the mouth of the cave. One was obviously the guy who had abducted Asami.

I immediately hurled as much fire as I could muster at them. The guy with the mustache bent it to the sides, and I was about to follow it with a boulder I'd bent up when he shouted to me. "She's inside. If anything happens to us, my associate will kill her." I hesitated for just a moment, but couldn't risk it. I dropped the boulder. "That's what I thought. Come."

I glared at them for a long minute, then leaped across the water with an airbending push. They dropped into combat stances as I approached, but didn't try to strike. The leader motioned into the cave. "After you."

I could feel the energy of the lightning he was holding as they followed me down the tunnel. He kept letting off little sparks of it into the ground, keeping too much from building up but always having it ready to use on me. The tunnel ended in a room lit by a half dozen torches with two large metals pillars taking up the majority of the space in the center. Asami was sitting on the floor chained to one of them, a cloth tied around her head as a gag and a third Lotus with a knife to her throat. I heard a muffled hum from her, but I could already read it in her eyes. She was terrified, not for herself but for me. She hadn't wanted me to come.

I clenched my fist and twisted, but nothing happened. The chains and knife must have been platinum. It would be almost impossible to attack the guy holding it. Even if I got him before he could react, I couldn't knock him backwards without possibly still slitting her throat, and if he so much as twitched she could be gone. Not to mention that I'd have to take out both of the guys behind me at the same time or we'd both be shot full of lightning. And even then we might be anyway since the leader was still holding a charge. These guys came prepared.

"Okay, I'm here. Now let her go."

"You already know that's not how this is going to work. As soon as she was safe, we'd be no match for the Avatar state. That's not going to happen. You're going to submit to us, and once we're finished, she'll be free to go. As I said, we have no issue with her."

I tried to think of any other way out of it, but I couldn't think of a single thing that I knew wouldn't get Asami's windpipe cut open. I didn't know what they were planning, but I figured I had a better shot of escaping it than Asami had of escaping her situation. I'd managed it once before, even if that was just barely. I could earthbend them all into the ceiling as soon as that knife was away from her neck. I just had to wait for them to let up. Buy some time.

"Fine. You win." I put my hands over my head. The henchman that wasn't threatening Asami chained me to the other pillar. They were thorough there too, five separate platinum chains for my hands, feet, chest, hips, and knees. Not that that would stop me from a simple stomp to form three pillars of earth straight to the roof. We'd still have to find some way to get out of the chains afterwards, but maybe I could earthbend one of the guys close enough for Asami to get a key.

I heard the leader move into position behind me. Everything was quiet for a minute, then a pair of orange glows lit behind me, one on either side. I never broke eye contact with Asami. She was crying. The orange lights started to move in large circles, back and forth, and I felt something tighten in my chest. I gasped as my mind suddenly felt white hot. My limbs went numb as pain burned through my spirit.

I reached out for Raava, but all I could sense was that she felt the same fire searing through her. I couldn't connect with her, and she couldn't reach me either. I tried to focus on Asami. If I could just block out the pain... My vision blurred, and suddenly Asami wasn't Asami anymore. Her hair was wild, a small wolf-tail on either side, and her eyes glowed white.

Just before I blacked out, I heard the leader behind me say one thing. "Thank you, Avatar Korra."


	13. Lightning Strikes

I kept my eyes locked on Korra's as hers slid out of focus and started to glow white. When she would go into the Avatar state, they lit up quickly, but this seemed to take ages. It was agonizing. Takuma took a more solid stance and fought to stretch his fiery hands out to either side. The flames flickered constantly, dimming and flaring randomly. Korra was fighting, but Takuma was winning.

Her head dropped and any hope I had left dropped with it. She would have fallen to the floor except for the chains. The flames on his hands grew brighter and stronger. A soft hum started to resonate from her. Slowly, it grew louder.

Takuma must have been sure he had her. He shouted, "Positions!" and the Red Lotus pawns who'd been threatening my life forgot about me. They took up stances facing Korra instead and readied their lightning in case anything happened.

I slumped forward and covered my burning eyes before looking up at Korra again. I'd been staring into her shining eyes long enough to notice the change. Her left was changing color. It had become ever so slightly more red than her right.

Takuma was right, she wasn't going to be getting out of this on her own. Her spirit was trapped, and without it she couldn't fight back. No other help was going to come. It was up to me.

I set my jaw and wiped my eyes on my sleeve. There had to be something I could do. Most brilliant mind in Republic City, and the Avatar needed me. _Korra_ needed me. I scanned the room for options.

I spotted my glove sticking out of the back pocket of the goon on my left. That would be an easy win if I could get it. I would be able to take out both of those peons in seconds, and all I really needed to do was interrupt Takuma's bending. Without him holding her back, Korra would return to normal. She could get us out of there.

But there was no way I could get my glove while I was chained up. I might be able to grab it with my teeth, but even if I could, I couldn't use it the way I was chained up. Not to mention that stopping Takuma without getting free would be all but impossible. So, the cuffs had to go first. I cursed myself for picking that morning for yoga. If I had just done my hair as I normally did, I would have a hairpin that I could pick the lock with. I had seen that henchman leave the keys on a table at the back after he locked up Korra, so they weren't an option either.

The noise from the hum of Korra's spirit and the sparks of electricity the henchmen kept bleeding off was plenty loud enough by then to drown out the sound of my chains, so I shifted to slip my hands in front of me and get a look at what I was up against. Platinum, cuffs crafted together with a single keyhole in the center, and a loop for the chain on the side. My mind raced for ways to get them off. Some way I could pick the lock, or break the hinge, or something! But I came up empty. I had nothing to work with. Despair crept in for the hundredth time as I dropped my hands to the floor by my feet. I looked up to Korra. The red in her left eye was growing. We were running out of time.

I looked back down to my hands. I desperately struggled to twist one out of its cuff, but I tore my skin within seconds. There was no way. The base of my thumb always stuck out too far, no matter how I tried to contort it. I was sure my hand would fit if I could just get my thumb out of the way...

Then I realized I could. I made up my mind as soon as the thought entered my head. It didn't even feel like a choice, really. Korra needed it. I laid my right hand flat on the ground, palm up, and folded my thumb in. I bit down on the rag in my mouth, shut my eyes tight, then jumped what little I could and stomped.

I felt the snap more than I heard it, but even more than that I felt the pain. I did my best to hold in my scream, and the cloth muffled the rest enough for the hum from Korra to drown it out. Neither of the Red Lotus pawns reacted. I opened my eyes and my vision swam. I felt light headed. I struggled not to hyperventilate. Korra couldn't afford for me to pass out.

 _Just don't think about it, Sato. Korra. Focus on Korra._ It took me a minute, but I managed to calm myself. I looked down at my hand and saw that it worked. My thumb was crushed in, practically flat against my palm. I fought a wave of nausea and looked away. I slowed my breathing, then carefully slid my hand back. It was still a bit of a tight squeeze, and the pressure on my thumb made me cry into the gag again, but my hand slipped free of the cuff. Every breath I took shook as I slowly stood up.

Step one, cuffs: check. Step two, glove and goons.

I knew I would only have a split second to catch them off guard. I was still chained up, so if either of them got out of my newly extended range, they could retaliate at will and there would be nothing I could do. I had to get them both before they could react. I looked back down at my free hand. That thumb couldn't stay bent in like that. I shut my eyes and groaned into the cloth again as I jerked it back to the side closer to where it was supposed to be. I was starting to become glad they had gagged me, even if exhaustion and mild shock were rapidly numbing the pain.

I tested the rest of my hand. I could grasp my own shirt well enough with my other four fingers against my palm. That would have to do for the glove. I focused on the wrist opening as it swayed along with the man's pocket. I watched his movements, found the pattern, and timed it perfectly.

Just as his body shifted downward, I darted out and pulled the glove up, transferred it to my still chained left hand, and pulled it onto my injured right. My thumb caught the edge of the glove's thumb hole and I squeezed my eyes shut as I yelled into the rag, but I didn't stop moving. I couldn't. I thrust my hand toward the man I had taken the glove from. He had reacted just slowly enough when he felt the glove pulled from his pocket, and I caught his shoulder as he turned. I felt the electricity spark around my hand and into him.

I was shocked at how bright the flash was though. My eyes snapped open and I saw why. I hadn't thought about the lightning he and his partner were storing. When I shocked him, he lost control of it. The energy burst from his right hand straight into the other henchman, who similarly lost control of his and loosed it into the cave wall. I withdrew my hand and they both collapsed.

"What's going on over there?!" Takuma shouted over the noise of his bending, but he didn't let up. "Wang? Lee?" He couldn't see me around the pillar, but he figured it out quickly enough when his friends didn't respond. "There's nothing you can do, girl! You're too late."

He was right. Korra's eye was almost blood red. I still couldn't reach the keys, and even if I could find a suitable lock pick on my victims _and_ pick the lock both without my thumb, it was clear I wouldn't be able to do it in time. With Korra's pillar between us, I couldn't even throw anything at him to try to mess him up. I was out of ideas.

It was all for nothing. My pain, her pain, for nothing. I broke my own thumb to try to save her, and that was nothing too. I couldn't help her. Again. For the last time. I slumped to the ground and pulled my glove off with my teeth, defeated. I almost didn't even feel the pain. I looked up to Korra again through watery eyes. I felt empty. All I could do was watch that eye get redder and darker. Like when I watched Zaheer nearly suffocate her. Watching the love of my life die.

Then I looked to her other eye. Still pure, bright white, shining in the darkness of the cave. Its color hadn't shifted at all, hadn't wavered once. I felt a fire grow inside me again. The light was still there. Maybe I could still save it.

I stood back up and strained against my chains. The cuff around my wrist dug into my skin and my arm fought with my feet to find how to get the most distance. I stretched out, reaching for Korra. I didn't know what I was doing, but I could feel it. I had to reach her. I just had to.

I flexed my shoulders, twisted the cuff, anything I could to get a little more distance. I was so close, her forehead barely an inch from my fingertips. Just a little more. One last pull on the chain ripped my feet out from under me and I lurched forward. As I fell, my fingers brushed across Korra's brow. In a flash, everything went silent and white.

* * *

 _I kept trying to reach out to Korra, but to no avail. I could feel her energy, both with me and on the other side, but it was only that: energy. Her consciousness was split, torn between the two. I could not connect with her body either, attempting to was like swimming against a current that grew stronger to match my effort._

 _Though I could not connect to the other side, I knew what was there. I could feel it. Korra's darkness, what little her spirit possessed, was there. She had always been a person with a core of light, just as all my Avatars had been. They were all reformations of Wan, after all. But no human is without darkness._

 _Worse, my own darkness was there as well. The Darkness that it was my responsibility to control. I felt it pulled from within me when the ordeal began. Vaatu. I had felt him growing stronger, little by little. He fed off of the darkness whenever Korra fell to despair, which had been rare of late until she encountered that doppelganger of hers again. The growth was larger when the un-tethered dark half of the tree spirit invaded our body, but that was also relatively minuscule. The instances were small and incremental, but I had been acutely aware of them. Even minute expansions of the darkness were always noticeable amidst my light. I had neglected to bring the situation to Korra's attention. It had not been a threat to her yet, certainly not one that she could do anything about anyway, and I did not anticipate it being problematic for centuries._

 _That was no longer true. In the absence of my control, I could feel Vaatu's darkness growing every second. I fought with everything I had, but it seemed there was no way for me to bridge the gap and rein him in again. He was getting closer to returning to power by the moment, and I was powerless to stop him. It was very rare that I failed my Avatars, but this was perhaps my greatest failure yet. And quite possibly my last._

 _Without warning, I felt a spark, a new connection. I latched onto it immediately. I had felt this presence through Korra before, but I had never contacted the spirit directly. It was full of light as well, and such a unique mix of strength and gentleness. "Asami."_

 _An idea took shape within me almost instantly. I could not act to escape this torment, but perhaps I could help her to. It took her a moment to grasp the nature of our thin connection and respond. "...Raava?"_

 _"Yes. There is not much time. Korra is weakening and the darkness grows. I believe there is a way that I can help you end this, but it is very dangerous for you. It requires that you risk your-"_

 _"Do it."_

 _I was surprised by her lack of hesitation. "Surely you should know what I-"_

 _"It doesn't matter. Korra has risked_ ** _everything_** _for_ ** _everyone_** _, for the_ ** _world_** _, for_ ** _me_** _,_ **** _over and over again. You said it yourself, we don't have time. Do it."_

 _"It will only work if you open yourself to me completely. Do you trust me?"_

 _"With my life."_

 _"With your spirit? With all that you are?"_

 _Her light flashed with laughter. "I've been doing that for years."_

 _Light swelled within me. I had been concerned about the possibility of Asami failing this task. But I could not have asked for a better response. My concern evaporated. "Very well." I reached in to my power and out to my connection to Asami._

 _In the era before the Avatar, we bent not the elements, but the energy within ourselves. To bend another's energy, your own spirit must be unbendable, or you will be corrupted and destroyed. The True Mind can weather all the lies and illusions without being lost. The True Heart can tough the poison of hatred without being harmed. Since beginning-less time, darkness thrives in the void, but always yields to purifying light._

 _I met no resistance, and I bent her energy with ease._

* * *

I looked down at my body, mid-fall, fingers just brushing Korra's forehead. I must have been held there through my connection to Raava. I looked at myself, a translucent red Asami floating above the regular one, my ghostly fingers meeting my solid ones where I touched Korra. I was a spirit. Raava was _bending my spirit_.

She left control to me. As though the Spirit of Light would have ever done any different. But I could feel what I needed to do through our connection. My energy was an extension of hers, for now. My spirit was her weapon. I kept one spirit-hand to Korra's head to maintain the connection as I drifted around the pillar. Raava bent my anchor arm longer so that I could reach.

Takuma turned to look at me as I came into his view around the pillar. Shock spread across his face for a moment before resolution took its place. He stubbornly held his bending. I reached across and set my fingers on his forehead, and he couldn't stop me without releasing Korra. Raava's energy flowed through my arms and light erupted from his sixth chakra. It was blinding, but we didn't need to see for this.

Suddenly, I could feel Takuma's spirit make contact with mine. He pushed back against me and I faltered. I hadn't been expecting it. He pushed again, but this time I was ready and didn't budge. I could feel his surprise.

When he pushed a third time, I pushed back. He was full of conviction, of course, belief that he was doing what was right for the world. But his motivations weren't personal. He could have overpowered someone else who was trying to save the world from him. But I wasn't doing this for the world. I was doing this for the person I loved more than anything. The one person who meant more than the world to me. My motivation was Korra.

I burst through his convictions, demolished his willpower, straight through to the heart of his spirit. It was almost effortless. Raava's bending surged through my spirit to his, and everything burned white. For a long moment, I didn't know what was going to happen. Then my connection to Takuma vanished. My consciousness returned to my red spirit self, hovering, stretched around the pillar as I watched Takuma fall backwards as the flames on his hands died.

I felt a surge of energy rush up my arm from Raava and instinctively opened myself to let it pass through. A small bolt of black lightning shot from the end of my spirit's fingers into the wall above Takuma's body. I could sense Raava calling me back, so I drifted around the pillar and settled back into my body. Korra's eyes were both white again.

I heard Raava's voice echo through my spirit from my fingertips. " _Thank you, Asami."_

I opened my heart and thought back to her. " _No, thank you."_

Our connection ended, and Korra's eyes faded. I crashed to the floor, my legs pulled out from under me by my own pulling on the other end of the chain.


	14. The Eye of the Storm

I woke up slowly. I felt really well rested, apart from an ache that tugged at my heart. That's when the last thing I remembered came back to me: mustache guy's bending, no connection to Raava. My eyes snapped open and I reached for our connection in a panic.

" _There is no need to fear, Korra. I am here."_ Her voice calmed me down immediately. Or at least it changed my panic to relief.

" _Raava! I'm so glad we're okay. We… are okay, right?"_

" _Yes, we are largely unharmed. However-"_

" _What hap-?"_ I winced internally. I hadn't meant to talk over her, but it sounded like she was done. I paused so she could continue, but she didn't and urged me on instead. " _What happened? What did that guy do to us?"_

" _He appears to have developed a method of using firebending to manipulate a person's spirit. He separated the light within us from the darkness. Having your spirit pulled apart is a very taxing endeavour, yours is very strong to have endured it for as long as you did, and to have recovered so quickly. Unfort-"_

" _Rec-"_ And it happened again. I tried to let her go ahead again, but she just deferred to me. " _Recovered quickly? How long was I out? Where are we?"_

" _We are still in the Fire Nation. Specifically, we have returned to the royal palace. But I am afraid that I am not the best judge of the passing of time. Still-"_

" _How di-"_ Okay, she really needed to stop pausing so long between sentences. She waited for my question and I stepped in again. " _How did we get here? How did we escape from that? His bending shut me down completely, did help come?"_

" _Our primary savior is none other than Asami Sato. I do not know how she came to reach us, but I was able to connect with her and bend her spirit such that we could stop our assailant together. If he-"_

" _Wait, you did what?"_ I didn't care that I was interrupting her this time. " _You_ _ **bent**_ _Asami's_ _ **spirit**_ _?"_

" _Yes. I think I shall leave the full explanation of that to Ms. Sato herself. I am sure she will wish to speak with you about it regardless. She will also have to explain precisely how we were delivered from the cave, for I know only so much about that. She seems to be waking up, perhaps you should see to her. There is an important matter I wish to speak with you about, but it can wait until you two have discussed."_

I felt a shift in the pressure that I hadn't realized was on my legs. " _Asami!"_ I returned my focus to the outside world and found myself staring at the ceiling of a medical room. I pushed myself to sit up. Asami was in a chair next to my bed, slowly sitting up from being slumped over asleep across my legs.

* * *

I'd meant to move to my own bed next to Korra's when I started getting tired, but I must have fallen asleep. I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes as I sat up. I pushed my hair out of my face, then ran my left hand through it and shook my head so it would fall down my back. Then I noticed she was sitting up, smiling at me. "Korra!" I lunged forward and caught her in a hug. "You're awake!"

"Yeah," she said, hugging me back. "Sorry I scared you."

I didn't want to let her go. I blinked away the mist in my eyes as I tightened my hold on her. "I'm just so glad you're okay. I was so worried. I thought everything was going to be okay after Raava thanked me, but then you didn't wake up, and I just…"

She ran a hand up and down my back. "It took a while for my spirit to come back together all the way."

I nodded as I pulled back from her and sat in my chair again, tucking my hands out of sight under the bed. "That's what the healers said. They told me there wasn't really anything they could do to help, but that they thought you'd be okay from what they could feel of your spirit."

She nodded and looked down at her hands in her lap. She was quiet for a minute, then smiled again as she looked up to me. "So, you talked to Raava, huh? Tell me about everything. How did you connect with her? How did we get here?"

"Well, we got here with the help of some of the Fire Nation guard. They said you tipped off Lord Zuko about what was going on before you left?" She nodded and grinned. "I'm glad you thought to tell someone, even after Takuma's threat. I'm not sure if I could have gotten us out on my own. It took them a while to reach us, they had to cross Shu Jing on foot and be really careful to avoid alerting the Red Lotus. They showed up about half an hour after Raava and I stopped him. They secured the Lotus members at the cave, then escorted us back to the capitol so the healers could see you. We got here the morning after it all happened, and we've been here two nights. Izumi woke up yesterday, she's doing a lot better, and the healers have been able to focus more of their efforts on you since she doesn't need constant attention. A couple of updates on the Red Lotus came in yesterday, too. Fire Nation forces captured all of the people from the airship, and with some intel from the White Lotus they found three other members besides." She looked relieved at that. "As for how I connected with Raava…"

I bit my lip, then cautiously held up my hands. My right was in a full cast, and my left was still bandaged where the cuff tore the skin. She started to freak out, so I smiled sheepishly to try to ease her worry. "I _might_ have broken my thumb in order to get out of the cuffs. The healers said that if I'd used a little less force, I could have just dislocated it and it would have taken half the time to heal, but I didn't really have much of a chance to practice." I relaxed as she smiled and shook her head at my joke. "I'm not exactly sure how I really _connected_ with Raava. I just reached out and managed to touch you and she just… found me."

"Yeah, she says she can always do that if she wants to. Like, she can always feel you when we touch. But normally it would mean connecting my spirit directly to the other person's too, so she keeps to herself. She figures I could do that myself if I wanted to do it. I can do that?" She quirked her head a bit, looking at nothing. "Yeah, I guess I can do that. Bad idea most of the time though. Real invasion of privacy, and dangerous with somebody who doesn't want me there. Maybe we could try it sometime, though?"

I nodded. "It was _so_ incredible with Raava. Her light is so amazing, and she's so pure and strong, and..." I realized I was gushing about Raava to someone who was literally always connected to her even stronger than that. Also I might as well have been gushing about Raava _to Raava_. I blushed as I bit my lip again. "She said something about darkness, then she pulled my spirit out of my body and we stopped Takuma together. I think she bent his spirit too. He fought me when I connected to him, but he really wasn't any match."

She looked shocked at that. "Woah, you did the whole battle of wills thing with the energy bending?" She looked down at core as she continued. "You _let_ her do the energy bending will battle? Well, I get that, but she could have-! What, no, of course I believe in her!" And now she was arguing with Raava. _Out loud._ I covered my laugh. "I guess, but… okay, fine. It did work out okay, so it's not like I can be too mad… She really said that?" Korra finally looked back up to me and her face flushed. "Yeah, okay. You've got me there."

She smiled at me, and for a minute we just watched each other, both so glad the other was okay. Then the look on her face suddenly changed. She looked stunned and her cheeks colored again. "Wha-… when di-… but I… you…" she stammered.

I gave her a quizzical look before noticing her hand, still in her lap but a finger extended, pointing up toward my chest. I looked down to see nothing, but then I remembered. "Oh," I reached up and touched the pendant hanging from the cloth around my neck. The stone pendant with inlays of red basalt and blue obsidian, a gear surrounded by waves that curled in between its teeth. "This?" She nodded, her mouth hanging open just a bit. It was adorable. "Yes?"

She swallowed once, opened her mouth to speak then shut it again, swallowed again, and finally said, "Do you… know?"

I smiled back at her. "Yes."

"And you…"

"Yes."

"But," she still seemed a little confused. "I'm supposed to, you know, ask you and stuff."

"It was in your pocket when the healers changed you. Did you really expect me to wait around until you woke up and got around to asking me? After what just happened?"

"But Asami," she whined. "That completely kills the story! I won't have an awesome story about how I proposed or anything. My dad's gonna want to brag to everybody about how I asked you!"

"Well, do you want to ask me now, then?"

"From a hospital bed? Can't we wait until we get back to Republic City? Everybody'll be expecting us home from our 'vacation' anyway."

I gave her an overly dramatic look. "Are you saying you don't want to be engaged to me right now?" She blanched and started stammering again. I grinned and laughed lightly. "Relax, Korra. You can ask me when you want to." I folded my arms as well as I could with my cast. "But I'm not taking it off."

She rolled her eyes and sighed dramatically. "Ugh, fine." She sat up straight and took a deep breath, then fixed me with a serious gaze. "Asami Sato, will you marr-"

"Yes."

"Asami!"

"I'm only teasing. Go ahead." I sat up straight and proper, my hands in my lap.

"Will you-"

"Yes."

"Okay, forget it. We're not getting engaged anymore."

"Liar."

She fake glared at me, then reached out and hooked a finger under my betrothal necklace and pulled me in for a long kiss. Afterwards, she rolled her eyes again. "Okay. You convinced me."

" _I_ convinced _you_? But _you're_ the one proposing." I tapped her nose and she smirked. "Don't worry, babe. I don't need some big fancy ordeal. I just need you." I smiled and moved to sit next to her on her bed, laying my head on her shoulder and closing my eyes. "And don't worry. I'll tell the boys that you took me out on another ride on the turtleduck boats before asking me in front of the spirit portal. They'll think you're hot stuff. I don't think it'll convince Opal or Pema, though. Maybe we should come up with a good story for it together. If you want to." When she didn't respond, I sat up and looked over at her. "Korra?" She was staring adamantly at something, her jaw set. I followed her gaze to the room's empty doorway.

She didn't look away from the spot, but found my unbroken hand with hers and laced our fingers together. She swallowed once, then spoke quietly, like she didn't want to be overheard. "Do you see her?"


End file.
